Vacation - All I Ever Wanted?

When I was little, my grandparents would take my mother and me to Wheeling, West Virginia every year (sometimes multiple times per year!).  They were big country music fans and had friends in the area (including friends that owned a motel, which made staying for 3 weeks at a time affordable).  Needless to say, this was a pretty boring vacation area for a young girl.  However, what made it bearable was the fact that we would eat out up to 3 times a day.  For a fat kid that loved eating, being able to go to a restaurant three times a day and order whatever I wanted was heaven.  

Fast forward to this past weekend and I find myself on vacation and having three days where I would have to be eating two times in restaurants.  This actually scared me instead of exciting me.  Normally I would just say that this was just "free time" and I would get back to counting points when it was over.  Not this time!  I managed to survive:  Chick-fil-a, The Golden Corral, Wendys (twice), Cracker Barrel, a Philadelphia 76ers game & Don Pablos. 

Wanna guess how many weekly points I still have left?  30

I planned out each meal and made sure I did not deviate from my plan. Last week at my Weight Watchers meeting we talked about the importance of planning.  It is so true and I am so glad that I was so careful these pat three days. I am so excited and instead of just hoping I maintain this week, I hope to actually loose something!  I am actually looking forward to the next few days at home so I don't have to obsess so much about what I will be eating.  

However, I do have to say that I had a great time seeing the Philadelphia 76ers kick some Milwaukee Bucks butt tonight! This was my very first time attending a basketball game so it was definitely something cool and something I look forward to again.  Here are a couple of pictures from my night!

Theron & I!

A Nice View!

There are actually players out there now!

We won!  Yea!

A Winter Morning Walk

"I always thought about getting up, going for a run,

and then going to work and it never happened.  
And never, in a million years,

did I think YOU would be the one getting me up!" - Theron

The above quote was said over breakfast this morning by my fiance at our favorite diner after we completed a morning walk before 9:00am.  I should start by explaining that I am not a morning person.  Despite the fact that I have mostly worked morning shifts at work for the better part of the last 5 years has not made getting up in the morning any easier for me.  Instead, I have just perfected my morning routine to the point where I know the exact last minute I can stay in bed each morning and still make it to work on time and in a presentable way.

However, this morning I awoke about 7:00am and my fiance was still asleep.  I gave him a good twenty minutes before I started stirring and eventually he came around to the world of the living.  When he got up, he noticed that I was already dressed for the morning walk we had discussed last night.  I don't think he actually expected that I would be so willingly to venture outdoors considering we had a bit of a light snow last night and temperatures were hovering around freezing.  This did not discourage me and he got ready as well, even if it was a bit begrudgingly at first.

We started our walk by 8:00am and once at the park we followed our usual route and I was able to increase my running time by a minute as I had hoped.  I also noticed that I was laboring less as I did this and felt my body recover a bit easier.  Or it could have just been that my body was thankful to be warmed up!  I have to say that I was surprised because I never knew that your abs were involved in running.  My obliques have talking to me after each workout and I get giddy excited about this.  My core muscles are still in there buried under all that body fat! 

My results from this morning:

6 minutes jogging = 2 Activity Points

44 minutes walking = 5 Activity Points

PS:  And - if you were wondering -  breakfast was a beautiful egg white vegetable omelet with a side of fresh fruit and a slice of toast with jam.

I'm gonna be a runner!

Running is something that I have never been able to do.  In school, I was lucky if I was able to walk our one mile "run" before the end of class when they had to make us stop.  I remember many times when I would be lying on the grass afterwards thinking I was going to die.  Who would want to do this willingly?  I thought that cross-country runners had to have a mental illness of some sort.  Who could possibly enjoy doing this?

Then I realized - fit people like running.

On every season of The Biggest Loser, you always see the contestants running.  Whenever I read success stories of people that have lost weight with Weight Watchers, I see how they have become athletes.  They compete in 5Ks & 10Ks and even half & whole marathons.  These people have realized something that I try to keep trying to force myself to ignore - fit bodies like to run.  I definitely want to have a fit body and today I did something about it.  I ran.  

Granted - I only ran for 5 minutes out of a 51 minute walk, but I still ran!  I felt like I was going to die and that my lungs were going to explode, but I did it.  Plus, I'm going to go out again Tuesday morning and I am going to make myself run for 6 minutes, even if it kills me!  I kept telling myself that running will never feel as horrible on my body as it did today.  That everyday that I keep getting out there and making myself do it that my body will adapt and train and get used to the workout that I want it to do.

I have walking goals for this year of being able to do a 5K & 10K but by next year I want to be able to do these as runs.  I will get there because I'm going to keep pushing myself one minute at a time.

A 29 Point Lunch

Today I had an incredibly long and boring meeting at work.  So long, in fact, that I skipped my mid-morning breakfast consuming break and even ended up going to lunch late.  Needless to say, by the time lunch time rolled around I wasn't in the best mood or mindset to make healthy choices.  I ended up getting a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut with three bread sticks.  Thankfully, I just ordered water to drink or it would have been even worse.  I knew the meal would be pointy and that was okay since I still have all of my weekly allowance but I never imagined that it would total out to be 29 points.  Some people do not even get 29 points plus a day, and here I blew it in one meal.  Needless to say, I don't think I am going to be having that again to eat anytime in the near future.  With 7 daily points left, dinner should be interesting. 

Lesson learned:  I need to start packing my own lunch!

A New Year's Dream

This year it will happen.  This year will change my life.  This year I will start living a healthy, active, Weight Watchers lifestyle.  This will happen because I am going to start and keep believing in myself.  I am capable of preparing and enjoying healthy meals.  I am capable of giving my body the loving movement that it needs.  I am capable of setting and meeting goals.

My name is Danielle and today I fully recommitted myself to Weight Watchers.  I have been going for several months now but I never fully stuck to the plan and gave it my all.  I have fluctuated up and down for several months now because I did not want to put the work that it would take into changing my lifestyle. Well, that has changed and I have my biggest inspiration to thank for it.

In September, my fiance and I took a vacation to see my mother.  While on vacation I convinced him to join Weight Watchers with me because it would be easier with us both on plan.  He agreed and when we got home he joined Weight Watchers Online for Men.  To date, he has lost almost 25 pounds.  Me?  I'm still losing and gaining the first five pounds I had since I joined.  This really hit home for me during the holidays this year.  For Christmas dinner this year, my family decided to prepare a whole ham.  This ham weighed in at 21.3 pounds.  Almost exactly how the amount that Theron had lost at the time.  The running theme for Christmas day was - Honey, you lost a ham!

Since then, I have been wondering - when will I loose a ham?  

In order for me to loose a ham I need to set some goals for myself.  My first goal is quite simple: I want to loose 5 pounds.  From my starting weight of 231.8 pounds, I am currently down 4.4 pounds at 227.4.  Hopefully in this next week I will be able to shed .6 pounds so that I can meet my first goal.  After that, I am aiming for 220.2 pounds, which will be my 5%. 

I can do this.  I know I can.