Why wait?

So it's that time of year again. Time for resolutions that no one will keep and dreams that people will give up on within 2 weeks. I can say this because I was this way at the beginning of 2013. In fact that's why I joined WW in the first place. Did it last? No. Why?  Why don't people keep their resolutions they make at the beginning of the year?  Is it because we don't want to change?  Is it because we get lazy? Why does it take a scary and unfortunate event to happen before we will make the commitment to change our lives for the better?  Honestly your guess is as good as mine. With New Year's Eve right around the corner, I ponder these questions. So I am adopting a challenge for the month of January. You can also check it out HERE.    

I also decided that I am going to put myself out there so I can be held accountable. Here it is people my before picture taken after my treadmill session tonight:

It was so hard to take that picture, let alone post it. But this is going to be different. So here I am posting it. 

For breakfast I decided to try out this overnight oats trend that I've been seeing.

I'm not a fan of oatmeal at all but it wasn't too bad. I took a 1/3 cup of all natural steelcut oats, 1/3 cup of vanilla yogurt, 1/3 cup of fat free milk, 1/2 of a banana, 1 tsp of chia seeds, and 1 tbsp of all natural peanut butter and mixed it all together in a jar and put it in the fridge overnight. In the morning I topped it with all natural honey oat granola. (12 PP) It was chewy but good, even my 2 year old ate some of it. It was more points than I thought it would be but it kept me full until lunch. I was running errands today so I ended up at mcdonalds for lunch. Instead of the Big Mac or mcdouble, I decided on the grilled snack wrap (7 PP) and a water. For dinner it was country fried steak and augratin potatoes for the family and I made the WW recipe, Lemony Chicken and Broccoli (4 PP). 

I got a spur of my butt today and decided to make homemade crockpot applesauce. It's finally done and the best part is that it has NO added sugar!!!  Thank you Pinterest. 

10 apples peeled, cored, and sliced

2 tsp of cinnamon

1 tsp of nutmeg

1/2 tsp of ginger

1/4 tsp of cloves

1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

1/2 c of water

Combine everything in a crockpot and put it on high for 1 hours stirring occasionally, turn it down to low for 5 hours. 

I also jumped on the treadmill for 40 minutes today. 

Starting Weight: 236.8 lbs

Current Weight: 230.4 lbs

1st Goal: 218.0 lbs

Day 11 - It's How Many Points!!!!

So yesterday started out great!!!!!

Even my snack was right on point. It's Friday so we always do dinner out on Friday night.  So the plan was to head over to Applebee's because the have the WW menu with points. And I save 21 points for dinner and that was just the daily allowance. Then the plan was to come home and walk on the dreadmill and wrap some gifts then bed....that was the PLAN. Plan being the keyword. 

Then we headed to go get little princess from Nana's. We sat and talked for awhile and when we got up to leave his mom says, "wait you need the turkey and stuffing to take to grandmas!"  That's when it went all downhill.  I told Tony lets go to Aunt Penny's and she can give it to grandma before Christmas for dinner. We can go over after dinner. He says let's call her and see what they are doing for dinner. And my heart sank (sort of). I love going over there and visiting because just don't see them enough anymore. But I also knew that that meant one thing...pizza. I already had pizza twice this week and I was very hungry. So I asked Tony to stop at McDonalds and I ordered a grilled chicken snack wrap (6 pts) so I wouldn't be starving. I also order a Super Supreme pizza thinking with all the veggies it would be the better choice...

Well with the amount of people we were feeding I bought large pizzas, meat lovers, pepperoni's lovers, and super supreme. Then there was wings and bread sticks. Oh and a 2 lite of Mountain Dew aka my kryptonite. Turns out that a slice of pan super supreme pizza is 10 points a piece and I had 2 slices. I also had 4 wings bc that was the serving size and 2 glasses of Mountain Dew. There was sweet tea there but I figured with all the sugar in the instant tea the soda would be a little better. I don't know where that logic came from considering there was a faucet right there. Well after 2 slices of pizza and 4 wings later this is where I ended up. 

Definatly not my shining moment. By the time we got home it was midnight and I was in bed so I could be half way awake for work tomorrow. 

How do you handle other family member dinners when they have different eating habits than you do?  Better yet when you are working hard to change your eating habits, and your husband and kids have different habits that they are unwilling to change, how do you handle that. Mind you they don't have terrible eating habits at all but they also have metabolisms that can out run a gazelle I think. It's frustrating because all I hear is that I need to have willpower and be able to be around these things and still eat right.  That is so frustrating to hear over and over and over and over again. 

Goals Achieved!

Hey everyone!

Between the holiday season and with my husband being gone on business, I have been passing out at the end of the day without posting. My Bad. To top that, work has been insanely busy with the holiday season.  Tuesday my son had his Christmas play at school, so after work I rushed over to his Nana's to pick him up and take him to school for the play. Then it was dinner there afterwards - pizza.  Quick and easy. I usually gorge myself on pizza with 4-5 slices of meat lovers but instead I only had 3 pieces which me to was an accomplishment. Still not great but not 5 pieces either. I did get on the dreadmill (hehe-I read that the other day and it describes that exactly!) and pushed myself over 2 miles for 60 min.  Tuesday was also weigh in day. So my starting weight was 236.8 and I was dreading jumping on that scale because let's be honest I cheated a bit during the week. So I begrudgingly got on the scale this morning with my eyes closed. After 5 minutes I opened my eyes and to my surprise was weighing in at 231.6 lbs!!  That's over a little over a 5 lb loss!!!  I was doing the happy dance all morning.   

Than I stumbled on this picture on my tumblr account (you can follow me by searching simplyjacobs12). It's hard to visualize the weight you loose sometimes. Especially if it's just a pound or so. Any pounds lost are an accomplishment when you really sit down and think about it.   Now back to Tuesday night, I did order a pizza for after dance on Wednesday.  I know what you are thinking...."why in the hell would you do that?!?!"  We'll let me finish here, I order a medium thin crust Hawaiian pizza with light cheese and light sauce. One slice totals 6 WW points. (Username for WW is anjacobs84 if you want to be my buddy!) Plus after dance I need something quick to feed to youngins so I can get them in bed.  Dance went very well.  Fiona loves it so much and it's a great chance for her to gain some independence.  Tony came home on Wednesday (WoooHooo!) and the kids were so happy to see him. It's great having him home. It's so lonely when he's not here not to mention the kids go crazy. Sometime Wednesday I rolled my ankle so when I jumped on the dreadmill, it really started to bother me.  I made it through 25 minutes before I had to get off. But at least it was something. I took it easy on Thursday and didn't do anything strenuous so it heal. Maybe part of it was for my ankle to heal and the other part was that I didn't want to exercise that night. I'm going to go with the first possibility. 

With everything going on at work I was dreading getting up logging in but then on the way home from dropping Fiona off I seen this 

It was so beautiful that it brightened my day. Below are my trackers for the last 3 days: 

Wednesday was the best day out of all three. I'm on Day 10 now of my journey and there have been some bumps but I'm still on this journey.  Last night I made progress I think. Tony stopped by BK to get the kids a quick dinner because it was late and when he asked me if I wanted anything I hesitated but did say no. I SAID NO!!  In my mind I was doing the happy dance but it was a very hard word to say at that point. But it is a step and I rewarded that step with a new book from iTunes. 

On a side note the whether has been absolutely gorgeous down here.  It started to feel like winter just in time for Christmas. They are predicting 80's for the next 4 days though. Like I said I love the cooler weather so I hope it comes and goes as quickly as possible. Lol. 

Christmas is 5 days away!!!!  I'm so excited but there are so many presents that I have to wrap!  Everything is big and bulky so it's taking up ALOT of wrapping paper. I still need to get a few thing suck as stocking stuffers and baking ingridients. That's going to be another challenge for me. I always do a lot of baking for Christmas, cookies, candies, fudge, you name it.  This is going to be so hard because I have a very southern family and everything is somthered and covered at every holiday. I was thinking about eating before dinner but I don't want to hurt my grandmother's feelings because she will be the one spending all day cooking.  So that's out of the question. The problem still remains...how will I make it through Christmas?

I've Never Set A Goal!

After having the difficult discussion with my husband, I realized that I never gave myself a deadline and goal...EVER.  I just went in head first without a plan or goal.  So what I have been given is a goal and a deadline - 3/15/14 - goal weight - >210 lbs.  That goal is very doable if I put my mind to it. I need to get serious and push towards that goal. 

So the first step?  I pulled out my treadmill and put it in my room today.  Typically after the kids go down for the night I would sit and watch tv until I fall asleep.  That's exactly what I wanted to do tonight.  I have shows that I need to get caught up on and shows I want to start watching.  Well I threw on a pair of shoes and jumped on the treadmill.  I started out with the setting of 3.0 mph and quickly learned that that is too fast.  So I decreased the speed down to 2.5 mph.  This in no means was easy for me because after 10 minutes I felt like I was on it for over an hour.  I was huffing and puffing just pushing forward.  Or as least trying to.  I needed to do something to get my mind off of my aching legs and burning lungs.  So I turned on the tv in my room, and pulled up hulu plus.  Now all I needed was to figure out what I wanted to watch...Once Upon a Time in Wonderland won the raffle there.   I put my ipad over the screen so I wasn't sitting there watching the time go by.  You know when you watch the clock it goes as slow as molasses.  I made it through the episode but barely.  As soon as that episode was over so was I. 

For dinner tonight I made a soup that I love, because we had a minor cold front come through.  When the winter hits I crave soup so soup I made.  It was Potato and Sausage Soup from Publix's Apron Meals. 

Potato Soup With Sausage

Ingredients: 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 1/2 lb Yukon gold potatoes
1/2 lb chicken (or turkey) Italian sausage (2 links)
1 (48-oz) box reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
4 cups chopped kale greens (about 8 oz)
1/2 cup heavy cream

Prep
Slice onion. Halve potatoes, then slice thinly.
Remove casing from sausage (wash hands).Steps


Preheat large stock pot on medium 2–3 minutes. Place sausage in pan; brown 5–7 minutes, stirring to crumble meat, or until no pink remains.
Stir in onions; cook 1–2 minutes or until onions are softened. Stir in potatoes, broth, salt, seasoning, and kale; cook and stir 12–15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
Puree soup lightly using stick blender (or potato masher) until smooth. Stir in cream; serve.

CALORIES (per 1/8 recipe) 180kcal; FAT 7g; CHOL 40mg; SODIUM 740mg; CARB 20g; FIBER 2g; PROTEIN 11g; VIT A 100%; VIT C 60%; CALC 6%; IRON 10%

It came out to 11 WW points per serving.  But it was oh so good.  I need to learn to lighten up the meals a bit though.  I was reading that I could put 1 tsp of corn starch and 1 cup of fat free milk.  I'll have to try that next time along with actually using turkey or chicken sausage because I  used what I had and that was pork Italian sausage.  Breakfast for me was Special K Fruit and Yogurt cereal with Fat Free milk.  Lunch not so good - it was sharing some popcorn chicken with my princess while we walked around Wal-Mart waiting for a prescription to be filled.  I managed to push off cravings while babysitting in the afternoon which was a HUGE step for me.  After I got off the treadmill I finished the day with some AMAZING sugar free homemade applesauce.  It hit the spot. 

As I close out the day my thoughts go to tomorrow when I weigh in and find out if I lost anything at all during the up and down week.

Frustrations abound

I know. I know.  Its been three days since my last post.  Nothing important happened during those three days.  Friday was great as far as food and exercise is concerned.  I made these amazing pancakes Friday morning.  Now I know what you are going to say. Pancakes?  Pancakes on a diet?  Yes, Pancakes on a diet and only 3 WW points each!  I got the recipe from an amazing blog.  After googling greek yogurt pancakes I stumbled across this recipe, Greek Yogurt Pancakes .  They were amazing and I am officially converted over to the greek yogurt pancakes craze.  Instead of the typical syrup that you poor over the pancakes that is oh so good but full of so much sugar that it can keep a toddler buzzing for hours, I drizzled 2 tbsp. of raw agave nectar on mine.  The perfect touch to amazing pancakes.  I chose blueberry as my flavor of choice. For lunch I pulled out a WW recipe for a ham quesadilla with added vegetables and it was just as good. 

As far as exercise is concerned, I have come to the conclusion that I am a wimp.  Wimpy, wimpy, wimpy.  I hate pushing myself out of my comfort zone.  I decided that I was going to run a lap and walk a walk around my yard.  well it was a total of 5 minutes per lap.  I did run for 5 minutes a total of 3 laps but I kept cursing myself as I did.

See the weekend started out well...but that's as far as it went. 

You know when you mess up its hard not to let it ruin everything for you.  You try so hard to change bad habits but its those habits that are hard to break.  You can call it an addiction if you want. A food addiction.  Turns out that food addiction is an actual thing! They blame it on the refined sugars and enriched flour.   Scientists say that it can be worse than other addictions such as alcoholism or addiction to cigarettes.  The reasons why they say that it is worse is because unlike addictions to drugs, those addicted to food still have to eat.  You can read more on it here.  Whether I have it or not, I don't know but I have been struggling with food for a very long time.     


I found this list:

Am I a Food Addict?

---

To find out, answer the following questions as honestly as you can. 

1. Have you ever wanted to stop eating and found you just couldn't? 
2. Do you think about food or your weight constantly? 
3. Do you find yourself attempting one diet or food plan after another, with no lasting success? 
4. Do you binge and then "get rid of the binge" through vomiting, exercise, laxatives, or other forms of purging? 
5. Do you eat differently in private than you do in front of other people? 
6. Has a doctor or family member ever approached you with concern about your eating habits or weight? 
7. Do you eat large quantities of food at one time (binge)? 
8. Is your weight problem due to your "nibbling" all day long? 
9. Do you eat to escape from your feelings? 
10. Do you eat when you're not hungry? 
11. Have you ever discarded food, only to retrieve and eat it later? 
12. Do you eat in secret? 
13. Do you fast or severely restrict your food intake? 
14. Have you ever stolen other people's food? 
15. Have you ever hidden food to make sure you have "enough"?
16. Do you feel driven to exercise excessively to control your weight? 
17. Do you obsessively calculate the calories you've burned against the calories you've eaten? 
18. Do you frequently feel guilty or ashamed about what you've eaten? 
19. Are you waiting for your life to begin "when you lose the weight"?
20. Do you feel hopeless about your relationship with food?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then you may be a food addict. You are not alone. FA offers hope through a real solution to food addiction
 

You can check out this link here. 

More than one of those questions, I answered yes to.  This would help explain my frustrations and failures.  But you have to use this information to help you not hinder you.  How can I use this to help me on my journey?

Day 2 - Cooler Weather!

Old man winter has finally pushed the high pressure out of the way and the cooler weather has finally arrived!

I'm one of the weird Floridians I guess. I like the cooler weather. The heat and humidity is for the birds but I'm still here. Whether that is due to fear or family, we may never know. 

So today was a much better day as far as food was concerned. It seems to be getting easier as time goes on. 

 As a kid, my mom used to make us eat oatmeal at least once a week and I hated it. I was not a lover of the "paste" and even now it has to be made right or I won't eat it. I like to check out the Big Lots in my area because they have a wide variety of food and even had organic choices as well.  Luckily the food at mine is all in date. I found this oatmeal there. 

It is so good and healthy for you as well especially with the added flax. The convenient thing about this brand is the inside pouch. You pour the pouch in the bowl and instead of having to eye out the measurements for water, they actually have a measuring line on the pouch itself that you use. So you fill the water up to the line and it measures 2/3 cups and pop it in the microwave for 2 minutes and you are done. They have a lot of different flavors too. My favorite are the apple cinnamon and maple brown sugar. On the plus side the sugar level in this oatmeal isn't too high like it is in a lot of other brands.   For those to travel to the office, this is a great food choice for breakfast. 

I attempted my first official Weight Watchers recipe tonight for dinner. 

I was a little worried because of the balsamic vinager. I'm not a big fan of it at all. It is a little overwhelming to me. But this recipe made me wonder if I was trying the wrong recipes. This recipe brings out the sweetness of the Brussels. It was so good that I had to stop myself from picking at it while the other food was cooking. It is defiantly worth a try, even is you don't like brussel sprouts. 

I wanted to skip my walk today not because of the cooler weather per say but because I don't have any workout clothes for cooler weather. I sucked it up though and figured that I would warm up as soon as I increased my heart rate.  Today there was no running attempt. I still made it 1.84 miles but the longer I was out there the more painful it became. As I breathed in the cooler air it made my nose burn. I also came to the conclusion that I need to get better shoes and workout gear especially for the cooler weather. Now that I have that figured out, I need to find where I can buy some and not break my wallet. 

As far as my frustration for the day, I find myself struggling with late night snacking and willpower. I dot great all day and then 9 pm hits and I start wanting to munch on things. Are there any tips that you may have that can help with late night snacking and willpower?

Day 1 - The Hardest Day Ever!

This is me. My name is Ashley and I'm 29 years old weighing in at 236.6 lbs. This is not my biggest though. I ballooned out at 298lbs back in 2010. I have always been one to struggle with my weight and I've tried every diet out there.  I even jumped on the gastric banding bandwagon. But 3 years and 1 child later here I am. Due to insurance changes and financially responsibilities, I am unable to go into the doctor to get the fills you need for the lap-band to work.  I was also not one who would get it so tight that all they could eat or drink was broth or soup because I felt that that was unhealthy. So I am on my own again. I've have been dealing with depression and pcos for quite some time now so I take this one day at a time. 

I have 2 beautiful children who are the light of my life. My oldest, Dareon, is 9 years old and his little sister is Fiona and she turns 2 in January. I have been married to the most amazing man, Tony, for over 6 years and counting. Not only am I a full time mom but I also work full time. I was given the opportunity a little over a year ago to work from home, which cut 3 hours off of my work day (the commute to and from work) and I am thankful forth at every day.  But it also took me away from the onsite gym and available trainers. I sit on my butt for 7.5-8 hours a day so I try to spend a lot of my time on my breaks and lunches either doing things around the house or fitting in a walk or jog.  At the most it's 35 minutes a day. I find it hard to work out on my days off just because most of those days are spent running errands. I also attent the University of Phoenix full time in order to finish my business management degree.  I have a lot on my plate so going to a gym is very difficult for me right now, especially with my husbands job, which is why I chose to attend the UoP in the first place. 

I needed something simple and I was tired of yoyoing all the time. So I joined Weight Watchers. This is Day 1, which to me feels like the hardest day ever. I find that I am one of sabotage myself for under lying reasons which I hope that I have worked out. Now that I know my problem, I can fix it right?  It's no that easy. I am choosing a public forum here to accountability. So this is going to serve as my fitness journal, both exercising and food choices.  I appreciate you taking the time to read a little bit about me, and now it's time to get this day recorded. 

Weigh In: 236.6 lbs. RHR: 104bpm Bloodpressure: 117/84

I have started with Weight Watchers' Points Plus tracking method which is all online be cause there is no way to fit another requirement into my day. With this method I can track my food on points on the Weight Watchers app that I have on both my iPad and iPhone. Talk about convinient!  So my points goal for each day is 38 and I have 49 extra points for the week that I can use. Plus I earn point for exercising.  

Food:

This morning started out with one of their breakfast's - Hot Cereal with Berries. 

I know, not very appetizing, but it was filling.  Basically it's a package of cream of wheat made with skim milk and topped with blueberries. For snack it was 1/2 of a light English muffin topped with FF cheese and a tomato paired with some wheat thins and a laughing cow cheese.  Lunch, I went with a seafood salad from the grocery store down the street and it hit the spot after my workout on lunch.  I a paired that with cucumber slices. Not bad huh?  Up to here everything was going great. I was hitting my goal and drinking my water. Then I made the mistake of opening the meat and cheese tray in the fridge. I thought that some crackers with meat and cheese would be a nice healthy snack.  Boy was I wrong!!  Not only did the rack up quickly in point but it took away all the points I had for the day. Now I was going to defiantly go over.  Tonight was also dance night for Fiona, so that means it's dinner on the go. After dance and a quick stop at Walmart, I chose to hit up the drive through at Taco Bell. It was once of the better choices, at least I thought so. For my dinner it was 1 crunchy taco and 1/2 of a chicken quesadilla. Not my best day at all. 

Mind you I ate 1/2 of the quesadilla because I was full. If I ate the whole thing, that alone would've been 14 points!  I always thought that I had good eating habits. As a kid, I use to opt for the fruits and veggies instead of chips and candy, but I've developed a lot of bad eating habits over the years and I am beginning to see them developing in my 9 year old. With the problems that this country has with childhood obesity, I want to make sure that my kids know and understand what good food choices are. They are part of the reason why I joined WW. I want to set a good example and be a good role model for them but also I want to make my 30th year the best one yet!  

Exercise Journal:

So I tried my hand at running today. I've always wanted to be a runner, but I have never actually tried running. I mean, when I was a kid I ran around all over the place, there was no such thing as staying inside on a gorgeous day. With living in the sticks in Florida, everyday was a gorgeous day to my parents. So I gained the nickname toothpick bc of my weight.  

Everything was great at least until I hit puberty that is. Then BAM! The "girls" showed up. They made it very hard to do a lot of sports because let's face it, it just hurt to do all that running around now. Back then supportive sports bras were hard to find AND expensive so it was the one thing I wish I had that I didn't. I steadily lost and gained weight through middle school and high school, but I was never able to be the "perfect"girl and I struggled with that. I now know that no one is perfect and what's important is to be healthy, but when almost every friend you had was what you considered the "perfect" size, it was hard to see it that way. 

Back to today's running episode. I went on lunch at 12 and got my workout clothes on and got ready with my nike app ( measuring time and distance for me), my iheart radio running playlist (pulsing pop is my choice), and my water bottle in hand. Even though it's the middle of December, it was 84 degrees here in the sunshine state but the humidity was down( which I was thankful for). 

This is my track. I have this huge yard and part of it you are walking up hill and then the other part you are walking down hill. So I started my warmup by walking up the hill then I decided to run down this part of the yard. At first I felt great, not too much burning sensation in my muscles and I wasn't too out of breath. That lasted all of 3 laps. By the time the 4th lap rolled around I was not running anymore. My calves were burning as well as my lungs. I wouldn't call it an epic fail but it wasn't what I set out to do. With frustration I walked for the remainder of my lunch time, which was about 35 minutes in total. 

It's better than nothing but I still found it disheartening. I am looking into finding which would work better, the couch to 5k program or the Galloway method. On a side note, I am reading this amazing book right now. It's called Running Like A Girl: Notes on Learning to Run by Alexandra Heminsley. 

I'm on chapter 3 and loving it so far. It's refreshing to read a book that shows the struggles a beginning runner has. Go check it out on Amazon!