How has flour and dairy free been feeling?

Well, when I started this experiment about three weeks ago, the plan was to go a full four weeks without dairy or flour products. At first I felt hungry all the tine and I didn't like it much. After two weeks I was kind of getting into the groove, but today I slipped up in a major but calculated way. The kids got to not only pick what was for dinner, but also got to prepare it. I had an alternative hot and ready for me to eat, however, home made fettucini with home made alfredo, goat cheese and rosemary souffle, and roasted carrots, it was too much. Squash soup was not going to compete with such a feast. I dove into all of it, and enjoyed every moment with reckless abandonment, and now I am paying for it. I feel so full that I feel like my tummy is stretching out, I have a sick sinking feeling from my shoulders down to my belly button, I wish I felt like throwing up, because I would gladly over feeling this way. And for those of you that don't know me personally, I take great measures to keep from thawing up. I have a whole routine of sitting or laying perfectly still, ensuring no one touches me, and that no one makes too much noise around me to avoid such an event, but today I would take it. I never thought I would say it, but pasta and cream sauce makes me feel ill and I should probably avoid it as much as possible. And all this time I thought it was my favorite food, a perfect union born in heaven just for me. All tjhis time it as been making me feel bloated, and I didn't eve pn realize it.

Here is the worst part. My husband knew and he told me all the time, and I just wouldn't believe it. He would say things like "Well, I better eat this today and enjoy it because one day you are going to tell me to quit making it because you don't like the way it makes you feel." Well, sorry honey, I don't like the way it makes me feel and the kids are going to have to beg before you can make it again.

Being Reassured by Skinny People

I had a skinny person over for dinner last night, and she reassured me that my hubby and I were not too skinny. Flabby bellies are a sign of being over weight. Losing a bit more weight on my part is not a bad idea, and my hubby is a picture of health. Though he may look small in his current surrounding, if he goes to practically any other country in the world, he would look large.

Not Counting and Losing Weight

After abandoning counting I have lost 3 more pounds. Making healthy choices is working. Looking at my goal board, it looks like I wanted to lose 20. I am down 11 with 9 to go. If I lose 5 pounds, Weight Watchers will weigh me in for free. I will be in my weight range and healthy according to the BMI chart and the doctors, and the charts Weight Watchers uses. I will be rethinking my ultimate goal after I lose those 5 pounds because I don't think my belly will be gone.

More and Less

Healthy choices don't have to be constant. I plan to still eat cream sauce, with shrimp instead of steak. I just need to remember to eat more salad than I do the pasta. I am also going to eliminate foods that I don't like that are high calorie. I will be in the minority on this one, but steak, burgers, and hot dogs are not going to see my plate. If there is a food that I like, but for some reason is not prepared the way I like it, I will pass. Maybe eat a little be to be polite, but why have a full portion, or extra of something that isn't very good and high calorie. I might as well eat veggies or salad then something than get fat over something yucky. So now if I can just stay motivated and take small portions of high calorie food, pass on high calorie foods prepared subpar, and eat plenty of low calorie foods.

LIFE STYLE CHANGE.

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When I listen to the radio, I hear lies about calories and cooking and it makes me want to scream. One of the light beer commercials claims that you will burn all the calories that you just ingested by throwing the can into the recycling bin and giving everyone a high five on your way to get another beer. You have got to be kidding. Don't believe it. It is a lie. Another commercial on the radio claimed that adding eggs to a cake mix is making the cake from scratch. Huh? Really? I know that they are supposed to be funny jokes, but I have kids in the car that don't get the humor and think that it is true. I already ditched the TV, I guess it is time to lose the lying radio too.

Floating Foods

Feeding the ducks becomes very difficult when processed foods are eliminated. You search your house for something that will float. There isn't any bread, there isn't a bagel, no English muffin, no Cheerios, no Rice Crispys... You think to yourself: Rice Crispys float maybe rice will float, but you forget to check first, and you take it to feed the ducks, and discover that it also sinks. How do all the processed food makers get everything they make to float? Everything I make seems to sink. I can and do make bread, but it is so much work that I wouldn't want to give it to ducks anyway. I guess the ducks will have to wait for other people to bring their processed foods to the lake. I haven't got any.

No More Counting

I hate counting. I am over it. I don't want to count anymore. It is discouraging, and if you miss something (if you don't write it down) then you don't lose any weight. This blog is no longer named correctly because I am not going to do it anymore. I would say that the pointsplus experiment was not a complete waste of time, and it wasn't a waste of energy because I am 8 lbs lighter than I was when I started. However, I am not really counting anymore. I can't remember the last time I managed to write everything down for a whole week. But most of all:

SKINNY PEOPLE DON'T WRITE IT ALL DOWN!!!

At Parties:
They have one or two drinks.
They only take one plate of food.
They take the lower calorie options.
They do not take the high calorie things.
If there are only high calorie options, they don't eat.
They cut a dessert in half and eat that.
They don't come back for more.

At Restaurants:
If they have an appetizer it is a salad with a clear dressing.
They have a glass of wine not a bottle, OR a bottle of beer not a pitcher.
They split an en tray.
They split a dessert.

At home:
They have healthier options available.
Snacks are veggies not chips.
Drinks are water not soda, and coffee lacks cream and sugar.
I have never seen a skinny person drink a diet soda. If they have a soda, it is the real thing, but it is only one.

This blog will now be about me trying to make healthier choices like the ones listed above. I will still be weighing in periodically, but I will no longer be counting. I will be avoiding sugar, dairy, fatty meats, alcohol, and packaged foods.

"No Thanks"

That is a phrase the skinny people have down cold. It doesn't matter how much they would want the item offered. I don't know what they are thinking, but there are only so many calories they have left in the day, and the calories you are offering them were not included in their plan for the day. "No Thanks." I must learn to master this phrase.

Another Party; Too Many Beers AGAIN!

I really need to start deciding before the party begins how many beers I am going to have. Maybe that is the solution. "Okay it is a two beer night and that means I have already had one too many, so I should really stop now."

I didn't use to like beer. What happened to me?

and only up .6

So I weighed in this morning and I was only up .6lbs. This is much better than I thought it would be with all the parties and the lack of counting. I guess all of the healthy choices have been making a difference.

Whoa, whoa is me. Beer is double packaged. Growlers. Are they the answer to my beer problem.

The best laid plans...

So about my plan of just not drinking beer at parties.... I will need to rethink that one. At least I got to plan the one last night. I invited a vegan which was an excuse to ask two of my most health conscience friends to bring a vegan dish if they knew how. Two people who wouldn't blink when asked that. Neither of them had to ask if that meant that ________ was out. They just knew and had everything they would need to make such a dish. Great news about having vegan dishes at your party: Low calorie, low fat, and usually no white fats and most certainly not double wrapped anything. So I at least had those choices on the menu.

Now what to do about all the beer? I must figure out how to go to a party and not consume as much beer. Just saying, "I am not going to drink so much beer" is not going to cut it. I must figure out something.

I must go weigh in today, and every week for the next few weeks. This is something I have been avoiding, but now is the time. July is the month.

Skinny People Split Entrays

I finally did it yesterday. For years I have known that the truly thin people will find someone to split a meal with. I knew it when I was 15 and thought it was silly. They had to still be hungry after eating half a portion I would say to myself. They must have an eating disorder, that isn't enough. What I didn't know at the time was that the portion restaurants give you contain about twice the number of calories that anyone should eat in one sitting. Not always, there are the rare exceptions to this rule, but generally speaking it is a good rule of thumb. The thin people knew it. I didn't know it, and now I am trying to lose weight. They aren't. So yesterday when we went to the restaurant, I split a meal, and afterwards I didn't feel hungry. I noticed that I didn't feel stuffed and too full to do other activities. The kids and I rode our bikes several miles, and other than the heat I was fine. Had I eaten the whole thing, I would have felt too bloated to do anything, I would have wanted to sit around for a long time, playing cards or a board game. Instead we went outside and played in the park for hours, riding bikes and other adventures.

Self Control at Parties

A party can mess up 2-3 weeks of careful counting and self control. I seem to be going to more and more parties, and having more and more parties at the house, so I think it is time I get serious about maintaining the healthy habits through the party. Maybe the beer is the problem. I think I need it to loosen up and talk to people. Once I have that 2nd or 3rd to lessen my inhibitions, then my inhibitions have been lessened and I lose that interest in being thin and just eat anything that looks good. I revert back to my old ways. (Potato salad, coleslaw, and tuna salad still don't make it on my plate; I guess items with mayonnaise still look gross.) Now the beers are a real issue, as they are packed with calories. So I drink 2-3 beers which by the way are 10-15 PointsPlus points. At this point anything I eat will put me over my daily limit. And there are always desserts at parties. This is a major weakness of mine. I will also have to be mentally ready for the desserts.

New party policy: Skip the beer, have a normal helping of the food, and only have a dessert if it was actually made from scratch. Nothing that came out of a box and a bag. The party last night had 3 desserts, confetti cupcakes which had to have been a mix, Black and Tan Yangling brownies -*- I can't imagine there is a mix for that -*- and fruit filled puff pastries that I saw come out of the box and a bag. Now just because I am not the one making it doesn't mean I should back away from my rules for when I cook in the house, so the Black and Tan brownies would have been the right choice. Better luck next time sans the beer.

Ingredients and Cookbooks

When did cookbooks give up on calling for ingredients? Graham crackers crumbs, refrigerated pie shell, refrigerated pastry. When did these get promoted to ingredient? I thought ingredients were flour, milk, and sugar. A pie made with a graham cracker crumb and butter crust, and chocolate pudding as the package directs, and cool whip topping may be good, but it is not cooking and we shouldn't need a cookbook to tell us how.

Where is the dividing line? How can we know before we buy a cookbook that it is or is not going to call for something prepackaged or pre-made? I feel like there should be a warning on the books that aren't really cookbooks.

Perhaps I have it backwards, and the real cookbooks have some word on them to let me know that they aren't going to call for one package marshmallows. Gourmet, epicurean, connoisseur, foodie.

Butter

Butter comes in a double package!!! Now I have an excuse not eat it.

Butter, Cream, and Mayonnaise

What is it about those three ingredients that make your brain think yum. If you try any of them by themselves they are not very good. Who wants to eat butter? Plane whipped cream maybe, but mayonnaise? And what in the world is mayonnaise anyway? This is one that I gave up long ago, before I even started thinking about dieting, losing weight, the healthiness of foods, or any of it. Why might you ask? One day I just decided it was gross. You see it a picnic, out in the sun, on top of otherwise perfectly healthy items, and making them a food poisoning risk. How long has that coleslaw been sitting there anyway? Hello potato salad, out in the heat, do you think you have anything growing in you that shouldn't be? Had you just been left potatoes, you would have been fine. Seasoned with olive oil and seasonings that don't need refrigeration you would have been all the yummier. But instead we put in hard boiled eggs, and mayonnaise. Don't we leave those things in the fridge? Next time you are at a picnic, and want all that mayonnaise laden food, think that should be in the fridge, and walk away. Yuck!

I have not yet tricked my brain into thinking it doesn't like butter and cream. I will let you know if I come up with anything.

More Activity

It seems that very few skinny people have a sedentary lifestyle. Be it tennis, yoga, or cycling, they have something that they do on a regular basis usually OUTSIDE. I don't know why, but exercising outside seems to be an important factor of being skinny. I am having trouble finding an exercise that I like. I take that back. The exercises that I like, get my heart rate up to about 200-220 and my doc says I shouldn't do those. That is not a good sustained heart rate. Which leaves all sorts of exercise that I don't like. I liked step aerobics and cycling. These were both at a gym, with a person telling you what to do in the front, non competitive, without a ball. INSIDE. Running has the same heart rate effect, and other sports have a competitive component. Yoga, and palates I find incredibly boring and painful. This looks like a list of excuses not to exercise but if I don't love it I am not going to do it.

Goals:
1. Try to find a way to cycle or do step aerobics w/o getting my heart rate up to 200 and still like it.
2. See if swimming, or regular biking can accomplish the goal.

Another big factor is the children. There are 4 of them, and only 3 of them can swim, only 2 of them can ride a bike. If I could just find a way to exercise outside with them without losing anyone...

Reading the Label

Some say, avoid X, Y, Z, P, D, and Q. Some say count the number of ingredients and if it is less than 4 or 5 it is probably just fine. But what I am wondering is, why are we eating so much processed food. If it has more than one ingredient, it is no longer an ingredient. You don't have to read the label if it is called flour, milk, eggs, or oatmeal.

Tangent! I always forget this is going to happen, but it has happened ever time I go to visit someone. I always tell them the same thing. "We will go grocery shopping the day after we arrive. Just make anything for dinner, and buy some oatmeal, and then we will shop before lunch the next day." I say all of this, because when you take four kids anywhere, it is a bit of an imposition to ask anyone who is not used to feeding six people to cook for you. Or buy groceries for that matter. What I forget is people buy packaged foods. So when I say buy oatmeal, rather than just buying the big singly packaged container, they buy the individually packaged, artificially flavored, box. Yeah, so, um, hmmmm, my kids aren't going to eat that stuff, and yuck. Any wonder oatmeal isn't more popular. If we would just use the oats, and add our own flavors, I think people would like it just fine. It seems that cinnamon, raisins, and honey can't be dried and packaged into one of those individual packages and shipped to us ready to go. If it could be, oatmeal would be popular. But as it stands, we say "Oatmeal is healthy, I should try it again!" We buy those individual packs, try it again, and say "Yuck, I guess I don't like healthy food." and give up on oatmeal. Next time, just buy the big one, put in less water, and add some other stuff, and say "Yum, where have you been all my life!"

Clear Fats vs. White Fats

I think I have figured out the white food comment from the skinny person a few months ago. She said she didn't eat white food, which I found curious. Reading in Cooking Light yesterday I saw something that cleared it up a bit. It seems that foods like cheese, milk, steak, vegetable shortening, and coconut milk, all have the kind of fat that is bad for your heart and happen to be white in color. The clear fats like nut oils, avocados, vegetable oil, and flax, are all the kinds that are good for you heart. So what I think she was saying is that if she was going to eat a food with fat in it, it was going to be a clear one, otherwise, she was not going to eat it at all.

More Birthdays

Birthdays mean cake. A little bit of self control could have prevented this week's dieting from going down the tubes. Oh well. Guess I don't have the skinny mindset yet. Those cupcakes are just too tempting.

Meanwhile, I had another pantry purge today. (After the party of course. But don't tell the kids.) Into the trash today goes that giant bag of Skittles, why do they make such a large package anyway? Jelly Bellies:( I noticed that the food coloring was double packaged today. Box and individual squirt bottles. I investigated farther. Yellow 5 and Red 10. You have got to be kidding me. I know kids that are allergic to both of those colors, and I was going to drip them into my frosting. Hello trash can!

I know how to get red (beets) but where can I get yellow and blue? I guess the cakes are just going to have to be plain colors until I figure it out. Maybe I should learn to make cakes w/o butter and shortening. I have approx 3 months to figure it out before the next birthday.

I am still in denial about the crackers. They are double packaged, and highly processed. I guess I can put my hummus on raw veggies instead of crackers, but I am just not ready to give up the crackers.

Throw It Away

Sometimes kids leave pesky, tempting, enticing objects on their plate. We wouldn't eat after granny, why then do we moms feel the need to eat that piece of ________? Is it because we weren't appreciated for the work we put into making it? (Rejection) Is it because it would be wasting food? Or is it because we like carrying those extra pounds on our hips? Ask yourself those questions next time you are about to eat that cinnamon roll fragment, and instead of spreading it on your hips, scrap it into the trash can?

Eating Before You Leave

You are going to a restaurant where you know you usually over eat. Solution: carrot sticks, broccoli, or some other veggie you don't mind eating raw and plain. Avoid dip at this point, they are full of calories and you are heading somewhere where you are about to eat too many calories anyway. Also, when you eat them first, you won't have the flavor in your mouth very long or last, and you won't be starving when you get to the destination.

Yes. But only if...

I fell upon a new way of avoiding -------. Whatever it is, and in my case it was a granola bar. I was offered a granola bar during a moment of weakness. Six months ago I would have taken it without any question. But today I managed to avoid it, double packaging aside. When offered, you simply say yes, but only if it is a chocolate chip granola bar. Oh, you only have peanut butter. Well I think only chocolate chip will cheer me, but thanks.

Two things to keep in mind when you try this tactic. First, if your friend has chocolate chip granola bars you will be obliged to take one. (Fail Mission) Second, before you speak know what kind of granola bars are around. If you don't know it may be better to say something a bit less popular, like cranberry nut, keeping in mind your friend may have a cranberry nut granola bar available. See first rule. Double Fail Mission if you don't like cranberries.

No Telling

So I am no longer telling people I am on a diet and I am telling my hubby to do likewise. When you only have a few pounds to lose, Americans look at you funny when you tell them you are trying to lose them. The only people I bother trying to explain myself to are the very thin. They sometimes even argue. So I have given up the habit. Now I am going to behave like the thin and cut my dessert in half and offer the other half with someone else. Put half of my en-tray in a box before I start eating it. And I am not explaining myself. Skinny people never tell you why they are doing those things.

Nothing Out of a Wrapper Today

I managed to eat nothing that came out of a vacuum packed sealed wrapper today. Just an omelet with kale and other veggies, home made bread with jam, fruit, a salad, some pasta and maybe a little bit of Nutella. I guess the Nutella was processed food. I will go read the label now...Sugar, palm oil, hazelnuts, cocoa, skim milk, reduced minerals whey (milk), lecithin as emulsifier (soy), vanillin: an artificial flavor. Researching Lecithin and vanillin...

Lecithin is some chemical found it animal fat, egg yolks, soy etc.

Vanillin. I am reading and reading, but I am confused, and I don't want to post anymore about it. When I am sure of what this is, I will give it it's own post.

Box and Wrapper

I hadn't thought about my plan to not eat anything that comes out of two forms of packaging in a while. For one thing, I thought it was all out of the house, and that I wouldn't have to worry about it again. I forgot that people go to the grocery store and bring them home again, and I would need to think about it after every grocery shop. Twice today I found myself opening a box, pulling out a wrapper and opening the wrapper to discover the processed foods inside. Oops.

The first box was a box of 365 Herb and Garlic Water Cracker. 365 is the Whole Foods brand in case you are not familiar. Ingredients: Organic wheat flour non-hydrogenated organic palm oil, seasoning (organic garlic, organic onion, red bell pepper, organic black pepper, organic parsley leaf and other organic dried spices) salt, organic barley malt. As for ingredients, you could do worse.

The second Progresso Panko Crispy Bread Crumbs Italian Style. This item contains Wheat flour bleached, canola oil, maltodextrin, salt, dried roasted garlic, yeast, sugar, basil, spices, onion powder, paprika, caramel color, natural flavors, ascorbic acid. Other than the maltodextrin, I know what everthing on the list is, and I think they are all okay. I will have to check on maltodextrin... Checking... Looks like it is a starch derived from barley and used as a thickener. At least it isn't a chemical.

Had there been a bag of cookies with a container inside the bag, I think my radar would have gone off. OREOs for example. Somehow crackers and bread crumbs, don't have the same effect on my brain. But they are still processed foods, and I said I was going to avoid them.

Discouraging Skinny Person Talk

I couldn't figure this girl out. I see her eat from time to time and she always seems to have a Wendy's Thick Burger equivalent, if there even is such a thing. I don't keep up with the fast food sandwiches. She is pounding french fries, and drinking some sort of soda. So I asked her if there is anything she avoids, or anything she makes sure she eats to stay so trim. Here it comes.

She doesn't eat. She hadn't eaten anything yesterday, or today up until that point of getting that sandwich and fries with the drink. She won't eat again today, or tomorrow. And if she does eat anything it will be something she can grab out of the pantry or fridge and put directly into her mouth. She hates food. She hates dealing with it, chopping it, handling it, eating it etc. It almost seems that she waits till she is not going to be able to function in any meaningful way, and eats something then and then nothing else for a long time.

It doesn't seem the healthiest plan, nor does it seem practical. I like to cook, and chop veggies, and handle the food I plan to eat. And I certainly don't prefer processed foods the way she describes them. It seems there is more than one way to be skinny.

Interview of the Skinny Lady

I was talking to another Skinny Lady and here is a summary of why she is so thin.

She was telling me about a fast that she doesn't do, that uses an appetite suppressing drink that she drinks any time she feels hungry between meals. It makes her feel full and it keeps her out of the snacks. The ingredients in this drink (that she makes) are lemon, grade B Maple Syrup, cayenne pepper, and water. She says she drinks between 6-12 cups of this concoction a day. I have also been to a party that she threw, and she brought hummus, macaroni with something called nutritional yeast instead of cheese, chick pea something something or other, and a cake that a vegan would eat. I don't know how she managed the cake, and she kept using terms that I had never heard. Unfortunately the only one I remember at the moment is nutritional yeast. Mental note: skinny people eat nutritional yeast, I must find out what that is.

Oh yeah, the fast that she doesn't use, is called Master Cleanse. And the lemonade drink is found here

http://themastercleanse.org/the-lemonade-diet/

It's a Down Week!!!

So I was down 3 pounds at WeightWatchers this week. I know I haven't weighed-in in several weeks, but I am glad I am down. 8 pounds to go.

Talking to skinny people

So I was talking to another skinny person today, now this one was not skin and bones, like the runner, but he was trim. (We won't hold his gender against him, even though boys seem to be able to consume more than girls and not wear it around for the next 10 years.)
He says to me, "Oh, don't watch what I put on my plate, I just have a great metabolism and I can pretty much eat what I want." I think to myself, I will just watch and see anyway.

What does he put on his plate? For breakfast 2 pancakes, no butter and a light amount of berry syrup. The pancakes, were low fat, so the whole plate was maybe 6 points. (PointsPlus Points) Lunch, whole wheat sandwich, with pimento cheese (thin layer), two thin slices of ham, sprouted lentils, hummus. Sandwich looked like it was 8 points at most. Also on his plate, carrot sticks, sprouted chick peas, and pasta salad with more veggies in it than pasta, and a light but flavorful dressing. 4 more points there at most. It is convenient the someone with such a great metabolism would put so much healthy stuff on his plate. Maybe he doesn't have the metabolism he thinks he does, and just has a taste for things that will keep him trim.

I noticed a bag of malted milk balls, and a bag of gummy bears in their house. They were both opened, but neither looked as though any were missing. Hmmm. I guess they opened them and took one and closed it up again.

Back to counting

Looks like I still have 3 weeks before that wedding where I have to fit into that dress. Maybe if I count every calorie between now and then I should be okay.

Mother's day

Why did I eat those doughnuts?

I will weigh in this week.

Cinco de Mayo

Party Thursday. (didn't count points) Leftover beer & party food yesterday. (didn't count points). Egg white omelet, squash soup, & salad today. I guess I should figure out how many points I have left before I go to the Greek Fest.
Egg white omelet w/ cheese 5
Squash soup 2
Few pretzels 4
Salad w/ cheese 3
That's 14 so far. That leaves 15 for the fest. So I should be okay for today at least. Probably not enough to recover for the rest of the week.

Interviewing skinny people

I have started a habit of asking skinny people what they eat, and today the answer was.

"Well Monday - Friday I am very careful about what I eat, and on the weekends I just eat whatever. That's when we go to parties... But mostly I run and I avoid white food." I asked her to go into detail about the running, she runs 2-3 miles every day, with her dog, pushing 2 children in a running stroller. I saw the kids, they weren't babies. 3 and 5. She runs with her dog too.

I didn't get any details about the white food, but I assumed she meant mayonnaise, white bread, white rice, and white pasta.

Fruit

Fruit. So yummy, so succulent, so sweet, is making my mouth bleed. This is doing bad things for my motivation on staying on track with a diet. I am not ready to give up yet, but I am discouraged :(

Skipping Weigh In

Not today. Maybe tomorrow, but not today.

Ye Ole Fashioned

So I am not sure if you have ever entered this fine little ice cream establishment, but if you have, it did not do good things for your waist line. I tried to order 1/2 the smallest portion of ice cream and they gave me approximately 6 ounces. Last time I checked the back of an ice cream label, it said 4 oz was the serving size. That means, had I ordered the smallest helping at this establishment, that I would have received 3 times a standard helping.

I peeked at someones salad while in at my seat. I just had to look, as I didn't trust an ice cream shop to make a salad, and I was correct in my mistrust. Lots of lettuce, yes, but also 4-5 oz of cheese, (12+ PointsPlus), complete hard boiled egg (2 PointsPlus), an unknown amount of ham. I could only gawk for so long, before they realized I was staring at them (3+). There was also a 4 oz package of mayonnaise based salad dressing( (16 PointsPlus)

Leave it to an ice cream shop to make a 34 PointsPlus salad, when my PointsPlus target is 29.

Nutella

I love Nutella. It is very yummy, and I guess it is the girl's special treat. I will just have to resist it. It will need to be around for dessert. Perhaps I will lose weight, or maybe a bite or two of extra Nutella will ruin the whole thing. I will weigh in on Thursday and find out.

Chocolate Chips

Are they going to be the downfall of my diet? Why are they here? Oh yeah, I made a Boston Cream PIe, which called for 4 oz of chocolate. Why on earth did I buy a 12 oz bag of chocolate chips when I only needed 4 oz?

Problem: Stated above.
Solution: Walking to the pantry. Grabbing chips. Opening trash can. Inserting chips. Throwing something nasty on top. Better still taking out the trash.

Problem Solved!!!

No Tracking on Easter

I am sure I am over today. I think I stopped tracking around noon. I was trying for the 200 calorie meals and then just wait two hours before I eat anything else. We were at another party, and I asked my hubby to make me a 200 calorie plate, unfortunately he thought I said 400. . . and it went down hill from there. I will keep up the small meals until at least Thursday when I weigh in again.

Baking Day

How do you even track the tastes required in making sure your baking is going well? Small bit of Ganache, taste of Boston Cream, little bit of cake batter, and I wonder why I am 14 lbs over weight. I will count it as 6, hopefully that will keep me tracking.

I started the day with an egg white omelet, with spinach and cheese, then we went to the farmers market, half of a mini doughnut, and a third of a soft pretzel. Cups of coffee sprinkled in. This was the start of my day of having 5-6 150-200 calorie meals. I guess I need to figure out how many calories are in that Boston Cream Pie, figure out how small of a piece will be required for a 200 calorie piece. That will have to be my sixth small meal. Now to figure out how to have 200 calories of left over lamb, gravy and potatoes. I have a feeling that will be a very small plate.

My seriously skinny friend is right about one part of the 5-6 mini meals, I really am not feeling hungry. Maybe a small dinner won't be that bad.

It is an up week!

And not in a good way. I can't remember if they told me I was up 1.4 or 1.6. I just know the second digit was not the digit I was hoping for. Last night we did the traditional pass over feast. Very fun, but not low cal. The meal was worth it though even if I have another up week because of it. But I will have 6 more days to recover.

Tonight I ate dinner at one of my incredibly skinny friends houses. Always a wake up call on what you should eat. I don't know how she did it, but she feed my kids tofu and bok choy and they all loved it. She called it fried rice, but I don't think she put very much fried in it.

She recomended doing 5-6 150-200cal meals instead of the traditional 3 meals a day. It still looks like a 1000 calorie diet when you do it that way, but I don't know if I have the will power to do it that way. Maybe I will give it the rest of the week and see what happens on the scale on Thursday.

Between Dinner and Bed

Back to that time that makes or breaks a diet again. The old standbys are getting old. Green grapes are good... but...
So I am out of points, and there is ice cream in the fridge. Why is it there? Someone (not me) brought it home and left it here in case that person with exceptional self control wanted some at an unspecified later date. Which means I have to look at it every time I get into the freezer for an ice cube, or whatever else is in there. How long has it been in there beckoning me? Unknown, but it has been a while. How long will it last? Indefinite... If I eat it, it won't last very long. Then comes the whining. ("What happened to the ice cream") You brought it home and I ate it, that's what. But it isn't happening today. Today I will feed it to the kids. I guess there is more than one way to get a job done.

Counting Everything

This week, I am not sure that I counted everything. I am pretty sure that means it will be a gain week for me. This counting everything business is not very fun. It takes constant concentration, and dedication. I guess I could only have diet food in the house. Hard to do with a familly around. I guess I will just have to concentrate more.
Let you know how weigh-in goes on Thursday.

Out of points before dinner

Bad news. I am already out of points before dinner. It is one of my favorite dinners too. Shrimp, white sauce, pasta, and veggies. We went out to breakfast yesterday and today. This always puts a damper on the points available for dinner, but then I ate those cookies. oops. Maybe next time I will remember that my favorite dinner is on the line and I shouldn't miss it for some lame cookies.

Rule for the next two months or so:

DON'T EAT ANYTHING THAT WAS WRAPPED IN TWO FORMS OF PACKAGING. (EG: Poptarts come in a wrapper and box; cookies come in a wrapper and tray)

Out of Healthy Snacks

Oops! It is between lunch and dinner, dinner is not for a few more hours, and there are no healthy snacks in the house. At least none that I like ;) Here are the options as I see them.
1. Ignore feeling hungry.
2. Eat something here that is low calorie that I don't want.
3. Pack all the kids up and buy something I want.
4. Eat something that is already here that is high calorie and gain weight, be too fat for my cute clothes, and be insecure about my weight all the time.

Decisions decisions decisions...

Down 1.8

Weigh in went well. Down 1.8 pounds with 12.2 pounds and 7 weeks to go :)

Just seven more weeks like that and all my cutest out fits will fit!

Party Day

The kids had an Easter party today. That was fine. Nothing hard to resist. The spread included veggies with dip, fruit with cheese, (there ends the good choices) pretzles, crackers, chips (none of which are a problem for me), and chicken nuggets. Okay, limit myself to three and I should be able to leave the party unscathed.

Then the jelly beans show up. Maybe I will lose weight this week, and maybe I should have left the party befre the jelly beans arrived. We will find out in the morning.

That time in the evening

It is that dreaded time in the evening again. The time that makes or breaks a diet. Only tonight I have 5 extra points. Chocolate ice cream here I come.

Banana Blues vs. Green Grapes

My brain was going berserk for something sweet and I thought a big boring banana was my only alternative. I must say, I was grumpy, I was grouchy, when I open the fridge and what do I see, none other than green grapes to gratify my sweet tooth, with their sickening sour sweetness. I used to only eat red grapes for their pure sweetness, but now I see they are missing that edge. Green grapes, strike a nerve in the back of your mouth that will almost satisfy that desire for -----------. I can't type the word. I see now that it doesn't actually cure the desire for --------, but it does divert and distract your taste buds long enough for you to leave it on the shelf for someone else.

Moving on. Maybe a pantry purge. No. That will have to wait till I am not desiring sweet. (Dream on, I am always desiring sweets.)

Between Dinner and Bed

So for the miserable part of the diet. This is the part of the day when you realize you at pasta for lunch and dinner. Oops. Not really filling for the number of points. Daily points used already 32. Therefore, no daily points left. Weekly allowance left 26. I have 2 days left in the week so 26 weekly points is kind of a lot. Maybe I should save those for beers. Beers are 5 points on the new plan OUCH! Maybe the banana for zero will be satisfying. Pretending the banana is chocolate ice cream, do you think it can work? Here goes. I will let you know.

Only the numbers

They tell me my PointsPlus target is 29. Here is my break down of points used so far.

Thursday 29
Friday 37
Saturday 36
Sunday 34
Weekly Points left 29

So far I believe I have tracked every bite. I plan to weigh in again on Wednesday or Thursday.

Switching to PointsPlus

This blog will be dedicated to my experiment with the all new PointsPlus program at WeightWatchers. Some of you are already familiar with PointsPlus, but I just started reading about the program and using it on Thursday when I got my calculator. Why didn't I just look up all of everything online? Use the online calculators? Log into WeightWatchers online? Download it to my phone? Figure it out? Because I'm a brat, and I didn't feel like it. I stayed on the old plan until this past Thursday when my WeightWatchers center received more calculators.

All that said, I have a goal of losing 14 lbs over the next 8 weeks. This will be approximately 1% of my total body weight per week. This will put me within a healthy weight range for my height, just in time for bathing suit season.