So I guess its been a month since I started doing Weight Watchers, time for an update! So far so good I would say. I'm still getting used to it of course but I've gotten a lot of good habits/routines going since starting. On a normal day, I like to plan what I'm going to eat for that day in the morning and calculate the points to make sure I stay within my allotted number. That has been working great. I usually provide myself a few snacks and even dessert for dinner (usually a skinny cow ice cream or sugar free instant pudding). I always leave a little wiggle room too, just in case. That has been working great for me during the week. Along with this, I've been planning out the meals we will have for dinner that week from my favorite WW recipes so I can know to point out what dinner I'm having each night.
Planning dinners in advance has really been a great thing for me. That way I can make one trip to the grocery store and make sure we have every ingredient we need for the week as well as make sure to use all the fresh veggies and existing ingredients we have before they go bad. I used to kind of do this before but nothing formally, where I wrote it down and planned a grocery trip, etc. So that's been going great. I've also been loading up on veggies for cheap from our local Coop. I've loved that! Its awesome to get a variety of ingredients and try to see what you can make with them.
I've been trying a lot of new WW recipes. One that I made a few weeks ago is Beef Baked Ziti. It was really yummy! Steve and I really love pasta so this was a good recipe for us. I really enjoyed it and it didn't taste "diet" at all. We ate it for a few left over meals after that too. Another recipe I made recently that we both enjoyed were Turkey Stuffed Peppers. I'd never made stuffed peppers before and I wasn't sure Steve would even eat them, but he did. And the recipe was really yummy. I added a few extra veggies that we had laying around so that made it even better! I've found a few recipes I want to try this week so I'll let you know how they go!
I also tried a few other WW recipes and they were gross! ha ha! I guess all cooking adventures don't end well...Slow Cooker Lasagna was so gross. I've tried a few different recipes to try to get a good crock pot lasagna before being on WW and all the results were bad. Maybe this is just a dish you have to go the extra mile for and make the right way! I also tried to make Baked Pasta with Butternut Squash and Ricotta. Yuk! Steve has been on a butternut squash kick so I thought this recipe might be good. It was gross. It was just really bland and dry. And it took forever to make....boo. Not making that one again! ha
My downfall has consistently been the weekends. My normal schedule is off on the weekends and its a lot harder to plan out what I'm going to eat each day on the weekends. We usually have something going on with family that inevitably involves eating out or eating a meal at someone else's house. Also, I might have something else going on where I won't know what I'll be eating. For example, this weekend was a baby shower and I have no idea the points in the food at those kinds of gatherings. (I did avoid eating a delicious loking cupcake at the shower though, thankyouverymuch!) So I just try to make the best choices I can in the situation! If I know we are going out to eat I try to find out where we are going ahead of time to look up the points on this handy website. That website has points for a ton of restaurants, which is really helpful. If we are eating at someone's house I just try to make good choices like eat a salad/veggies with a vinaigrette dressing, pass the rolls with butter, pass on dessert, etc. Its really hard to make those good choices sometimes when everyone else is indulging, but I keep trying! The more I do it, the more I learn so that's always a good thing! And the longer I do it, the more of a habit eating good becomes!
But I'm down 5lbs after a month! Yay! So halfway to my 2 month goal. I think that's pretty good for me considering I've only been able to meet my working out goal of 3 times a week once this month. So...so far so good on WW. I hope I'm not annoying my friends and family too much talking about it! Here's to a new week and hopefully a lb or two lost at the end of it! :)
Monday, February 27, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
WW Week 1
First week on Weight Watchers done! So how did it go? The first few days were kind of hard adjusting from what I would normally eat to what I am eating now. I found myself really thinking about everything I put in my mouth which is a good thing. One day at work it was about a half hour before lunch and I thought about grabbing something but decided to wait to lunch to avoid the points for that granola bar or whatever I might have eaten normally. So that's a good thing! I also ate a TON more fruits and veggies this week since they are free. So that's a very good thing!
A couple of days I did find myself very hungry around the 4-5 o'clock hour, right before dinner. I need to get into the habit of having a healthy snack around that time to hold me over until dinner. This second week I've tried bringing an extra piece of fruit for that time, so we'll see how that works!
I tried some WW recipes this week too and that was fun. I made this Ziti recipe and it was pretty good. I ended up having to add marina sauce because it was too dry but other than that it was good and we had a ton of leftovers. The nice thing about using recipes from the WW website is you don't have to input them to track them. The bad thing is that I ended up adding things like the marinara which throws off the points. You can edit the recipe to make it a custom version, I just haven't done that yet.
I also found out that I can still have my subway for lunches! Yay! A 6 inch turkey sub on wheat with all the veggies you want is only 6 points. Woo hooo!! No mayo for me of course but its still yummy with mustard.
Unfortunately I didn't lose any weight this week. I was pretty bad on the weekend, going out to happy hour and a few drinks with some girlfriends and then I gave into Taco Bell on Saturday so....no weight loss, but its not a big surprise. I also didn't get a chance to go to the gym except one time. Its really hard to figure it out time to go with Steven and Steve's school schedule, but I need to work harder on that one.
So for this week, I'm going to try very hard to be better on the weekends and make it to the gym! Looking forward to making some new recipes too. I hope everyone has a great week!
A couple of days I did find myself very hungry around the 4-5 o'clock hour, right before dinner. I need to get into the habit of having a healthy snack around that time to hold me over until dinner. This second week I've tried bringing an extra piece of fruit for that time, so we'll see how that works!
I tried some WW recipes this week too and that was fun. I made this Ziti recipe and it was pretty good. I ended up having to add marina sauce because it was too dry but other than that it was good and we had a ton of leftovers. The nice thing about using recipes from the WW website is you don't have to input them to track them. The bad thing is that I ended up adding things like the marinara which throws off the points. You can edit the recipe to make it a custom version, I just haven't done that yet.
I also found out that I can still have my subway for lunches! Yay! A 6 inch turkey sub on wheat with all the veggies you want is only 6 points. Woo hooo!! No mayo for me of course but its still yummy with mustard.
Unfortunately I didn't lose any weight this week. I was pretty bad on the weekend, going out to happy hour and a few drinks with some girlfriends and then I gave into Taco Bell on Saturday so....no weight loss, but its not a big surprise. I also didn't get a chance to go to the gym except one time. Its really hard to figure it out time to go with Steven and Steve's school schedule, but I need to work harder on that one.
So for this week, I'm going to try very hard to be better on the weekends and make it to the gym! Looking forward to making some new recipes too. I hope everyone has a great week!
Sunday, February 12, 2012
February Fav Raves
Did you enjoy my first favs post? I hope so! What are you loving in February? Here are some things that I'm into this month.
First of all the Giants won the Superbowl! I'm excited about that for sure! I'm even more excited that they won against the Patriots and stupid Tom Brady didn't win. Ha ha ha! But seriously, this year's Super Bowl was a really exciting and close game. Steve, Steven and I just hung out at home and watched together. We had a great time. So congrats to them! Can't wait for football season again next year..
Another favorite this month is a show I've been loving all season, New Girl. This is a really entertaining show. Its so sweet and funny. I'm loving Zooey Deschanel in it. And the other characters in the show are pretty hilarious too. I even recruited Steve to watch New Girl and he likes it too!
Another thing that I really love, may sound stupid but its great...new sheets! Our other ones were gross, we had them since we got married and we definitely needed new ones. We picked up some grey ones that are similar to these at Target. They feel so crisp and clean! I love them :)
Another fav this month has been hanging out with my girlfriends! Since Steve has had so much homework in his class, he has been mostly doing that after Steven goes to bed on the weekends. That has given me an opportunity to hang out with my girls! Its been so nice spending time with them lately. Yay!
So what are you loving this February? Valentine's day is coming up and we are opting out this year. We both aren't super into it anyway, but maybe you are and you are loving something red or pink? :)
First of all the Giants won the Superbowl! I'm excited about that for sure! I'm even more excited that they won against the Patriots and stupid Tom Brady didn't win. Ha ha ha! But seriously, this year's Super Bowl was a really exciting and close game. Steve, Steven and I just hung out at home and watched together. We had a great time. So congrats to them! Can't wait for football season again next year..
Another fav this month has been hanging out with my girlfriends! Since Steve has had so much homework in his class, he has been mostly doing that after Steven goes to bed on the weekends. That has given me an opportunity to hang out with my girls! Its been so nice spending time with them lately. Yay!
So what are you loving this February? Valentine's day is coming up and we are opting out this year. We both aren't super into it anyway, but maybe you are and you are loving something red or pink? :)
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Baby Steven's First Year...Nine Months
Nine months! Already!! Crazy...Baby boy you are so big this month. This has been a month of adjusting to your ever growing self. We had to get a convertible car seat this month as you maxed out your infant seat. We also had to lower your crib setting because you are pulling up now. We had to get rid of your baby bathtub because you are way too big for it. We've had to start to baby proof too. You are just getting so big! Its ridiculous.
Probably the biggest development this month has been TEETH!! You actually got them at the very last day of December on the 31st. Your first tooth finally broke through. Soon after, your second one appeared. So cute! We are so proud of you.
And it is amazing the things you can manage to eat with just two teeth! You are gnawing through everything we put on your tray lately. You are a great eater.
The second biggest thing this month has been getting sick. You have been sick a lot this month. We all had a nasty virus and passed it around to each other. You got it bad and then you got double ear infections! Poor baby. We had some rough nights (and days) because of that but luckily we are all healthy again!
You are learning things everyday it seems like. You can help us turn pages in books now, turn off the lights in a room and give high fives! You love to play standing up and holding onto something too now. You are even starting to think about pulling up on things. Its crazy how much you can learn in just one month.
This month you've been really working on crawling. You will maneuver yourself around on the floor and its amazing how far you can reach things without actually crawling over to get them. Usually you reach out for something and if its just beyond your grasp you will essentially belly flop on the floor and sprawl out to try to reach it. If you still can't get it you'll squirm around and try your hardest to get over there but you aren't really going anywhere just yet....except backwards! You've learned how to push yourself backwards but that just frustrates you because you are getting further away from where you want to go! This usually results in crying...poor guy.
Your dad and I are confident you will figure out this crawling thing soon enough though! You're so stubborn you won't give up until you've mastered it!
You are such a love bug this month too. You will grab onto us and not want to let go when we have to put you down. You wrap your arms around our necks when we are carrying you and give big hugs. You also lean in for kisses a lot lately. Melts my heart!!
Along with being a love bug you have developed a bit of separation anxiety. You don't like to be left alone for any length of time and prefer to be held if mommy or daddy are in the room. You will fuss a little when we give you to someone but if its someone you know like grandma or grandpa you will be ok pretty quickly. I keep telling myself to cherish these moments where you want to be close to us because they won't last forever!
Steven, I can't believe how quickly the past 9 months have flown by. You seem to be growing up by the minute this month. You've accomplished so much, scooting around, getting teeth, starting to pull up, turning pages in books, giving high fives...I just can't keep up with you anymore! You are such a joy to my life everyday the best part of my day is always coming home to see your smiling face (and watching you freak out a little when you realize mommy's home!!). I love you so much little man.
Probably the biggest development this month has been TEETH!! You actually got them at the very last day of December on the 31st. Your first tooth finally broke through. Soon after, your second one appeared. So cute! We are so proud of you.
And it is amazing the things you can manage to eat with just two teeth! You are gnawing through everything we put on your tray lately. You are a great eater.
The second biggest thing this month has been getting sick. You have been sick a lot this month. We all had a nasty virus and passed it around to each other. You got it bad and then you got double ear infections! Poor baby. We had some rough nights (and days) because of that but luckily we are all healthy again!
You are learning things everyday it seems like. You can help us turn pages in books now, turn off the lights in a room and give high fives! You love to play standing up and holding onto something too now. You are even starting to think about pulling up on things. Its crazy how much you can learn in just one month.
This month you've been really working on crawling. You will maneuver yourself around on the floor and its amazing how far you can reach things without actually crawling over to get them. Usually you reach out for something and if its just beyond your grasp you will essentially belly flop on the floor and sprawl out to try to reach it. If you still can't get it you'll squirm around and try your hardest to get over there but you aren't really going anywhere just yet....except backwards! You've learned how to push yourself backwards but that just frustrates you because you are getting further away from where you want to go! This usually results in crying...poor guy.
Your dad and I are confident you will figure out this crawling thing soon enough though! You're so stubborn you won't give up until you've mastered it!
You are such a love bug this month too. You will grab onto us and not want to let go when we have to put you down. You wrap your arms around our necks when we are carrying you and give big hugs. You also lean in for kisses a lot lately. Melts my heart!!
Along with being a love bug you have developed a bit of separation anxiety. You don't like to be left alone for any length of time and prefer to be held if mommy or daddy are in the room. You will fuss a little when we give you to someone but if its someone you know like grandma or grandpa you will be ok pretty quickly. I keep telling myself to cherish these moments where you want to be close to us because they won't last forever!
Steven, I can't believe how quickly the past 9 months have flown by. You seem to be growing up by the minute this month. You've accomplished so much, scooting around, getting teeth, starting to pull up, turning pages in books, giving high fives...I just can't keep up with you anymore! You are such a joy to my life everyday the best part of my day is always coming home to see your smiling face (and watching you freak out a little when you realize mommy's home!!). I love you so much little man.
Ok Lets Do This!
Well I'm starting a new journey today...its my first day on Weight Watchers. I wasn't really planning to put it out there to the world but since the only 2 people who read my blog consistently (love you mom and Jenn) already know about it, why not? Plus, maybe writing about this journey will help me think through it more. Also, maybe this will be another place where I can be accountable.
So why now? Well my struggle with weight goes waaaaay back. Probably to middle school. I've always had a bad body image. I remember thinking that I was so fat in high school and when I look back at the pictures now, I was pretty thin. Certainly nothing that I would consider fat. During college, my bad image along with some pretty horrible eating habits ended me in the yo-yo dieting/gaining weight cycle. I would get really heavy and then lose a bunch of weight only to get heavy again. Frustrating. And what a horrible time to be doing that, trying to meet people and dating. Ugh...moving on.
After college, I did lose a bunch of weight by working out and eating healthier. I was in a really good places where I was happy with myself and probably the thinnest I've ever been in my adult life. That's when I met Steve. We both had good habits of being active and fitness was important to us. However, we also both had a history of not so great food choices. That combined with our new relationship status I think let us slip a lot in our eating and maintenance of an exercise routine. So we both ended up gaining weight our first year together, but we were happy. I've noticed over my lifetime when I'm happy in a relationship its much harder to get motivated to work out and lose weight. For some reason I get complacent when I'm happy emotionally. I wonder if its the same for everyone?
During our relationship Steve and I have tried numerous diets to lose weight together. Its really been failure of commitment and motivation on our part, if I'm being totally honest. We did lose a lot of weight before our wedding but pretty much gained it all back on the honeymoon. Oops.
Fast forward to now, I'm 9 months past giving birth and still holding onto some extra weight from my pregnancy. I went back to my pre-pregnancy weight pretty quickly after having Steven but that still left something to be desired. When I found out I was pregnant, my OB had concerns about my weight. He wanted me to lose weight in the first trimester which I did (mostly by being so nauseous and barfing all the time, but anyway). So, while I know most people try to get back to their pre-pregnancy weight I really need to lose much more than that.
So why Weight Watchers? I feel like WW might be the way to go to help me get my bad eating habits under control. I have periods of time where I make really good, healthy choices in food and then there's times where I completely blow it. So I feel like it will be good for me to track what I'm eating and have some accountability using the WW points system. I also really like that they give you extra weekly points you can distribute however you want. That's a really nice bonus. So if I know I'm planning on going out to dinner Saturday I can try to behave the rest of the week and use my extra points that day. They also have a separate point system for nursing moms, which is really nice.
So what kind of goals am I setting for myself? I think overall I want to lose 40lbs. In order to even be in the healthy weight range for my height and age I would need to lose a significant amount of weight (its depressing to type that). But I don't want to just be in the very top of the healthy weight range, I'd like to land somewhere more towards the middle. So I think 40lbs would be a good long term goal. In the short term, I'd like to lose 10lbs. I think I can accomplish this in 2 months. I'm planning to do WW to track what I eat and I'd also like to set myself the goal of going to the gym 3 times a week to start. I feel like those are realistic goals and I feel optimistic that I can achieve them!
So, friends and family, wish me luck! I hope to discuss some of my WW journey with you on here so stay tuned....
So why now? Well my struggle with weight goes waaaaay back. Probably to middle school. I've always had a bad body image. I remember thinking that I was so fat in high school and when I look back at the pictures now, I was pretty thin. Certainly nothing that I would consider fat. During college, my bad image along with some pretty horrible eating habits ended me in the yo-yo dieting/gaining weight cycle. I would get really heavy and then lose a bunch of weight only to get heavy again. Frustrating. And what a horrible time to be doing that, trying to meet people and dating. Ugh...moving on.
After college, I did lose a bunch of weight by working out and eating healthier. I was in a really good places where I was happy with myself and probably the thinnest I've ever been in my adult life. That's when I met Steve. We both had good habits of being active and fitness was important to us. However, we also both had a history of not so great food choices. That combined with our new relationship status I think let us slip a lot in our eating and maintenance of an exercise routine. So we both ended up gaining weight our first year together, but we were happy. I've noticed over my lifetime when I'm happy in a relationship its much harder to get motivated to work out and lose weight. For some reason I get complacent when I'm happy emotionally. I wonder if its the same for everyone?
During our relationship Steve and I have tried numerous diets to lose weight together. Its really been failure of commitment and motivation on our part, if I'm being totally honest. We did lose a lot of weight before our wedding but pretty much gained it all back on the honeymoon. Oops.
Fast forward to now, I'm 9 months past giving birth and still holding onto some extra weight from my pregnancy. I went back to my pre-pregnancy weight pretty quickly after having Steven but that still left something to be desired. When I found out I was pregnant, my OB had concerns about my weight. He wanted me to lose weight in the first trimester which I did (mostly by being so nauseous and barfing all the time, but anyway). So, while I know most people try to get back to their pre-pregnancy weight I really need to lose much more than that.
So why Weight Watchers? I feel like WW might be the way to go to help me get my bad eating habits under control. I have periods of time where I make really good, healthy choices in food and then there's times where I completely blow it. So I feel like it will be good for me to track what I'm eating and have some accountability using the WW points system. I also really like that they give you extra weekly points you can distribute however you want. That's a really nice bonus. So if I know I'm planning on going out to dinner Saturday I can try to behave the rest of the week and use my extra points that day. They also have a separate point system for nursing moms, which is really nice.
So what kind of goals am I setting for myself? I think overall I want to lose 40lbs. In order to even be in the healthy weight range for my height and age I would need to lose a significant amount of weight (its depressing to type that). But I don't want to just be in the very top of the healthy weight range, I'd like to land somewhere more towards the middle. So I think 40lbs would be a good long term goal. In the short term, I'd like to lose 10lbs. I think I can accomplish this in 2 months. I'm planning to do WW to track what I eat and I'd also like to set myself the goal of going to the gym 3 times a week to start. I feel like those are realistic goals and I feel optimistic that I can achieve them!
So, friends and family, wish me luck! I hope to discuss some of my WW journey with you on here so stay tuned....
Monday, February 6, 2012
Pursuit of the Perfect Playlist: Part Deux
Its time for another playlist update. I have been listening to several things on repeat this month so far. So here's what I'm loving....
I have been a long time fan of Maroon 5. I really just love this band. I know they are poppy but I really don't care. I asked for their new CD for Christmas last year and finally bit the bullet and bought it for myself with the Itunes Gift Card I got for Christmas this year! It was so worth it. LOVE their new CD! This is one of my favorite songs on the CD. Its really a great song, kinda sad but I like it. They haven't released it yet, so there isn't an official video. But here's some person's take on it...gotta love YouTube.
I also recently got the Gavin DeGraw CD with my Itunes GC. I didn't super love his last CD but I thought the new single was good and when I looked it up on Itunes the CD was cheap so I went for it. I am SO happy that I did! Oh my goodness this CD has been on repeat in my car and office for the past few weeks. Its really great! I love this song. Its kinda snarky, kinda slams an ex. I like it for some reason! Again, this one isn't released yet so this isn't the official video.
I don't want to wear out all my favorite new releases so here is one of my all time favorite songs! I love Dave Matthews Band. I always have. This song is one of my all time favorites by DMB. Its such a happy, positive song. Its fun to sing to! I love it. Hope you enjoy.
Here's another happy, upbeat song I'm digging right now. I don't have the CD but I really enjoy this single by Andy Grammar. They haven't overplayed it to the point of me hating it yet on the radio either. ;)
Well that's what I'm digging right now. What about you? Any new releases or old songs that you are still into at the moment?
I have been a long time fan of Maroon 5. I really just love this band. I know they are poppy but I really don't care. I asked for their new CD for Christmas last year and finally bit the bullet and bought it for myself with the Itunes Gift Card I got for Christmas this year! It was so worth it. LOVE their new CD! This is one of my favorite songs on the CD. Its really a great song, kinda sad but I like it. They haven't released it yet, so there isn't an official video. But here's some person's take on it...gotta love YouTube.
I also recently got the Gavin DeGraw CD with my Itunes GC. I didn't super love his last CD but I thought the new single was good and when I looked it up on Itunes the CD was cheap so I went for it. I am SO happy that I did! Oh my goodness this CD has been on repeat in my car and office for the past few weeks. Its really great! I love this song. Its kinda snarky, kinda slams an ex. I like it for some reason! Again, this one isn't released yet so this isn't the official video.
I don't want to wear out all my favorite new releases so here is one of my all time favorite songs! I love Dave Matthews Band. I always have. This song is one of my all time favorites by DMB. Its such a happy, positive song. Its fun to sing to! I love it. Hope you enjoy.
Here's another happy, upbeat song I'm digging right now. I don't have the CD but I really enjoy this single by Andy Grammar. They haven't overplayed it to the point of me hating it yet on the radio either. ;)
Well that's what I'm digging right now. What about you? Any new releases or old songs that you are still into at the moment?
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