Thursday, December 23, 2010

Blogging Break

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I'm taking a little blog break and will be back in 2011. I hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Years!


Friday, December 17, 2010

It's the Holiday Season...



I have not been able to get this song out of my head recently. At least people haven't been dressed up in gold costumes in my head.  I love this time of the year. Christmas is my favorite holiday! This week has been full of celebrating too.  Starting Tuesday I was suppose to have 5 holiday parties in a 6 day period. 

Tuesday started with my work department's holiday lunch at PF Changs. I thought this would be no problem I love their steamed shrimp dumplings and egg drop soup and it's very doable with Weight Watchers.  What I didn't know is that everything had been ordered for us ahead of time. They brought out tons of food for us. Appetizers and tons of entrees.  Luckily shrimp dumplings was one of the appetizers so I tried to get full on those.  When the entrees came I just had a little bit of a few of them.  I figured portion control was the way to go.

Yesterday was suppose to be my bigger work party but it was canceled because of the snow/ icy weather.  Work wasn't canceled though just the fun part of the day. Oh well the party has been postponed for January 5.  Too bad that is one of my department's busiest day of the year because of a deadline.

Tonight is Matt's unofficial work party which means one of his friends is just using it as an excuse to throw a  party, but not just any kind of party it's an Ugly Christmas Sweater party.  I have a sweater with a sparkly poinsetta on it just waiting to be worn tonight.

Tomorrow will my sister's in law's holiday open house.  My sister's mother in law is a good cook so I know there will be something good to eat there.  The best part is her recipes are usually healthy. Double win!  Sunday closes out the holiday parties with my Grandfather's side of the family "Smith family Christmas".  This party will be full of finger foods, relatives I don't see often, and a pretty vicious came of Pollyanna!

My plan to combat against 4 parties in 6 days is portion control, making good choices, and lots of exercise.  I also will make sure to eat something healthy before most of them so I'm not showing up starving. 

Happy Holidays!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Belated Weekly Weigh-In

DateChangeTotalTotal From BeginningWork Outs in Week
11/24/2010-2-17.4-35.43
12/1/20101.2-16.2-34.20
12/8/2010-0.6-16.8-34.83
12/15/2010-1.1-17.9-35.95


This week has been kind of nutty so my apologies on this post being late.  Also because this week continues to be nutty so this is going to be a short and sweet post.  I lost 1.1 lbs this week. I'm happy with it. Basically anything that is a 1 lb loss or more a week is good for me.

I also ramped my workouts up again and worked out 5 times this week. My workouts were 4 runs and 1 Zumba class. This week is full of Holiday parties, but more on that in another post.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Weekly Wednesday Weigh In

DateChangeTotalTotal From BeginningWork Outs in Week
11/17/20100-15.4-33.43
11/24/2010-2-17.4-35.43
12/1/20101.2-16.2-34.20
12/8/2010-0.6-16.8-34.83


Another week past and a small lose to show for it.  After working out last Wednesday at lunch and writing about it here I realized I spoke too soon.  That night was probably the worst for my coughing fits. I think the running kicked my asthma into high gear.  I laid low for a few days after that and now I'm feeling a lot better! Still coughing at night but not nearly as bad. 

My workouts this week were 1 run, 1 workout on the Arc trainer at the gym, and then another lunch workout but on the elliptical this time.  I have so far really liked the few times I have worked out at lunch. I don't have to get up earlier than normal and then I love the feeling of knowing my workout for the day as already been completed.

My work has a conference center/ hotel for students when they come to residencies here and the staff have access to the gym there.  It's nice because it's right here at work. They have a locker room with showers and everything too. Why didn't I think of this sooner? I will use this as a way to get in my workouts when I have something to do right after work.  Like today I am going to the Duke basketball game tonight so I'll get my workout in during lunch.

Last night Matt and I put up our Christmas tree. I love Christmas time! It was so nice to eat dinner with the tree lights on in the background.  Now I need to wrap some presents to put under it!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Weight Watchers New Points Plus Program

A few weeks ago Weight Watchers announced a new program called Points Plus. I have been using Points Plus for the last week and so far I have mixed feelings about it.  I will start with the cons of the program so I can end on a positive note.

What I Do Not Like about Points Plus 

- Points are now calculated on fat, carbohydrates, protein, and fiber. Anything I had previously entered into my online plan manage is now obsolete and has to be entered again. This by far is the most annoying thing. I had tons of stuff that isn't in their data base entered. I also had recipes in there. Recipes are time consuming to enter!
- I can no longer guesstimate points in my head based on the calories.

- My little Weight Watchers points calculator is no good to me.
- A lot of the things I eat are more points than they use to be. This is mostly a mental thing because I do get a bigger point allotment pre day.

What I like about Points Plus

- Points are now calculated on fat, carbohydrates, protein, and fiber.  I like that Weight Watchers is now looking at the bigger picture and taking more into consideration than calories, fat, and fiber. Why don't calories matter anymore though? Because the other things are what make up the calories?
- Even though a lot of items are more points now it seems to still work out about the same. I typically end the day right on track with my points or by using a few of my weekly points just like I did with the old program.
- Most fruits are now zero points. I'm not exactly sure how this works but I'll take it.

Overall the new plan is okay. It really comes down that I will need time to get use to the new program. Hopefully eventually I will able to figure out how to mentally guesstimate points in my head. Before I knew that every 50 calories were usually 1 point. If an item is high in fat it would take it up to more and if it was high in fiber it would take it down. This is when I wish I was still going to meetings. It would be useful to hear what a meeting leader has to say about the program. Does anyone know of a good way to guesstimate points values with the new program?

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Weekly Wednesday Weigh In

DateChangeTotalTotal From BeginningWork Outs in Week
11/10/20102-15.4-33.45
11/17/20100-15.4-33.43
11/24/2010-2-17.4-35.43
12/1/20101.2-16.2-34.20


The week of Thanksgiving doesn't count right? I was talking to my friend Beezus the other day and was telling her I was not going to have good results for this week. She was told me "that everyone knew the week of Thanksgiving doesn't count".  She also advised that I write a blog on just that. I thought about doing just that. I could list a lot of reasons why this last week shouldn't count but in reality it does count.  The scale still read this morning that I have gained 1.2 lbs and in the end the scale wins.

Zip, zero, zlich, zot, aught, nought, null workouts for me this week. I do not remember the last time I did not work out at all in a week. I had an awful cold that made me get out of breath and not be able to breathe well when I would just walk upstairs at home. Actually I coudn't breath well if I was just sitting on the couch. I did attempt a power walk one day but that turned in to a major coughing fit.  In the past when I have these colds I workout anyway. Every time in result though I get an asthma flare up. Remember this? I decided to not workout this week to avoid the asthma flare up, but I did walk some and try to be more active than sitting on the couch.


The good news is that last night was the first time in a while that I actually was able to sleep most of the night. Mind you I still took my codeine cough syrup before bed but this time it won over my cough. I know Matt was thankful because me up most of the night coughing equals him up a lot of the night. Since my cough seems to be better I knew it was time to get back on the workout wagon.  I already have completed 1 workout for this week.  I took advantage of the small gym we have at work and got on the tread mill during my lunch break.  One down and at least 4 more to go...