Update on my WW journey...

I started the PointsPlus program from Weight Watchers about three weeks ago, and so far, I am continuing to love this new program!  I can't even believe the quality of the food I am choosing when faced with the 36 points I get for the day!  I am still having some indulgences (a little Chick-fil-a here, a spot of Sonic there...really need my New Year's Resolutions to include some limit on fast food drive thru stops), but I am eating so many more fruits and vegetables than I ever have, and it feels amazing (except for day likes yesterday when the fruit and veggie overkill wreaks a tiny bit of havoc on the old GI system).

One of the first things I did when I restarted WW was to buy a little journal so I could write down the PointsPlus values of my most often eaten foods.  For example, I could eat for breakfast everyday a serving of steel cut oats (4) with 1 T of chia seeds (1), some sort of sweetener (either 1 T honey (2), 2 T maple syrup (3), or 1 tsp. Splenda/brown sugar mix (0), for the most part), and a banana (0).  I have been eating this breakfast for almost a year the majority of the time, and I have yet to get sick of it.  I was never a huge fan of oatmeal, but steel cut oats are beyond amazing (I thank the clean eating members of the H&F board on The Nest for introducing me to them), and I don't see myself getting sick of them anytime soon.  I also eat a lot of Morningstar Farms chik'n patties (4) on Arnold or Pepperidge Farm sandwich thins (3), with a slice of 2% milk cheese (1) and 1 T lite mayo (1).  It's a great go-to lunch or dinner because I can make it in fifteen minutes with the assistance of my toaster oven, and with a side of veggies, it fills me right up.  In fact, it's a great alternative to the drive thru and is what I chose last night for dinner when I got home from work at 8PM!  I also wrote down some PointsPlus values for not-too-bad drive thru options, as well as some of my Starbucks favorites, which will be OCCASIONAL treats for me but are something I don't want to give up forever.

Last week, I saw a number on the scale that I have not seen in MANY, MANY years, and I claimed it as my official weigh-in, so you  can see it reflected in my ticker at the top of the blog.  That official weigh-in was 227 pounds, which is 47.6 pounds lost since January 4!  I about fell right off the scale when I saw that number!  Of course, as most women know, our weights can fluctuate from day to day (and even hour to hour, really), so after dinner at a Chinese restaurant on Friday, I am up a bit, which I am crediting to water retention, I guess.  I am not too upset about it.  I am having my official Weight Watchers weigh-in today, and it will be my fourth meeting since starting the new program.  The scales at my meeting location are different from my scale at home, so I am sort of maintaining two weight loss totals.  There is my ticker total, which I have here on the blog, and there is my WW weight tracker, which is updated when I weigh in at meetings.  My WW weight was 235.8 pounds at my first meeting, 233.8 pounds at my second meeting, and 233 pounds at my third meeting.  I weighed myself at home before that third meeting, and it seems like my scale is at least 1.5 pounds different from theirs.  I also weigh myself in at home in the mornings, and I am going to WW meetings at different times of the day (the first was at 10AM, the second and third at 7PM, and today's at 1PM), so that is going to make a difference.  I am also trying to hit different meetings to get an idea of who the leaders are because I would love to attend meetings led by some of my favorite meeting leaders from my last WW go-'round!

I have been slacking on the gym, mostly because I have been working a lot more hours than usual at my retail job.  However, I was called off of work from my usual (nursing) job today, so I have an unexpected day free!  I have some Christmas prep to finish up (a bit of shopping, along with wrapping and baking), and I have plans to go to the Melting Pot tonight for dessert with my two best friends from high school (Hooray for those weekly extra points that WW gives me!), but that still leaves time to hit the gym.  I am reading Catching Fire, which is the second book of The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins on my nook, and that should make my elliptical and StairMaster time fly by!

If I don't post again before the weekend, I want to wish all those who celebrate a very merry Christmas.  And to everyone, a happy, healthy New Year!  Make it a great day, everyone!