Down 1.1 Pounds :-)

It could have gone either way last night but it went the right way. I am happy about that.

It was a tough week though.

I had fun, perhaps too much fun, and had to exercise my ass off to deal with it.

Truth be told I think I exercised too much. I was a bit manic about getting my points back in line. I didn't quite manage to do it but I managed to only go 13 points over my weekly allowance and that proved to be good enough.

I like that I can have fun on this plan and still lose weight, but perhaps a little more balance on the food front will result in a little bit more balance on the exercise front.

The thing that makes me happy though is that I am finally back in the 180's weight-wise (I am 189.6 pounds) and I only have to lose another 2.6 pounds and weight watcher's becomes free again.

We will see if I get there by next week.

Be healthy!

Alan

I love fresh beginnings

Today is the day I step on the scale.

To say this week has been a challenge from a points perspective is an understatement. The bottom line is I allowed myself to drink/eat too much and spent most of my time trying to compensate for it through exercise.

While this is possible, and I have no doubt I will repeat this pattern too many times, it really is a lot of work to undo food and drink damage. It certainly does make a good case for moderation. I just wish moderation was in my vocabulary. I will keep trying to get it in there.

I ended up being in the "negative" at the end of my Weight Watcher's week last night but only by 13 points...hardly the end of the world.

I think it means that whatever the scale says when I step on it tonight it will not be that drastic a change. I will be up or down slightly but there will be no major movement in either direction.

I know why the results will be what they will likely be so I can accept them.

Looking back over the week I think the only think that real frustrates me is those damn empty treats like donuts. I blogged about them, said I needed to stop eating them, and then continued to eat them. Damn frustrating.

Today is a new day, however, and a new week. There is something very refreshing about going on-line in the morning and opening up your tracker and seeing everything cleared away and the slate set back to zero.  It's a new day.

I will never be perfect...and don't want to be...but am hoping this week will be a little less of a challenge than last week.

Only 16 more days until I have to keep my promise and post my shirtless pic...I need to behave :-)

Be healthy!

Alan

Some Days Are Just Crazy

Yesterday was nuts work-wise.

I was up working by 6AM and by the time 10:30pm rolled around I was still working...and I hadn't even taken a break to have my morning shower. I was not a pretty site.

Fortunately the only "client" I actually had to see was also a family member.

On crazy days it can be really hard to eat right.

I thought I made a good decision at lunch by going to a "wrap" restaurant. I got their Roast Beef wrap of the day combo (combos are never a good idea") with 1% chocolate milk...and stupidly...a bag of chips. I really need to listen to my own "empty treat" diatribes. I topped the wrap with only healthy vegetables, but it still didn't look particularly healthy...it was way too big for one thing.

I was busy...I was hungry...I made a decision to go to a "better" option for take out food since I was nowhere near home...but at the end of the day I didn't make the best choices.

I also didn't have time to get to the gym yesterday. This isn't good from a points perspective but I know in my heart it is good from a health perspective. Every now and then the body needs at least a day's break from the gym.

If this was a normal week it wouldn't be a big deal but it is in a week when I was already finding myself struggling after a couple of excessive nights out.

I'm afraid there is little...scratch that...no...hope of me being in "balance" by the end of my points tracking week tonight, but hopefully the scales won't be too harsh on me when I get on them tomorrow. I am currently sitting at negative 18 points...last week I ended tuesday night with an extra 27 points.

What is done is done. We do not feel guilt...we get back on track and keep on riding as best week can.

Be healthy!

Alan

Had a Carmel Cheese Danish AND an Apple Fritter....oops!

I was feeling pretty proud of myself after my night of drinking at the comedy club Saturday night. Not because I had behaved well alcohol-wise but because I had had a good healthy dinner and then resisted the temptation to order food all night long.

Even when I got home at about 1:30 in the morning in a drunken stupor I thought about raiding the kitchen but managed to resist. I was determined to stay as "on plan" as I could.

I hadn't bargained on waking up this morning with intense carb cravings. I knew I had to get to the gym to burn off some of the "night before" so I forced my butt out of bed and headed to Tim Horton's to get a coffee...but man I was hungry!

It was at this point I caved. I forgot everything I had written this week about empty treats...I forgot about tracking...and decided I was going to eat and not only NOT tell anyone about it but not even enter this one little indulgence on my tracker. With absolute confidence that no one was lurking behind my back to catch me, I ordered an Apple Carmel Danish AND an Apple Fritter. They were yummy.

Fortunately working out at the gym brought me back to my senses. I realized that lying about the whole thing and not putting this food on my tracker was primarily fooling no one but myself.

So...I put it on my tracker (18 points) made a point of keeping the rest of my day's food "low in points" food, and made my indulgence fit into my points allowance for the day.

I was already in the process of digging myself out of the negative "weekly points allowance" so using weekly points simply wasn't an option.

I did an hour and 3/4 exercise instead of my usual one hour in order to gain back some points.

At the present time I am "negative 9" in my weekly points allowance. My Weight Watchers week ends Tuesday and an hour's exercise is five points so, provided I don't so anything else stupid food-wise, I can do an hour's exercise today and tomorrow and bring my nine points back into balance.

Clear as mud? Hopefully next week I won't put myself in a position where I need to dig my way out.

It will be interesting to see if all this creative, but valid, working of the plan, will result in Weight Loss Wednesday.

Be healthy!

Alan

Boring Blog Day

OK this one is going to be short as I don't have much time to Blog today but wanted to keep my commitment to posting my tracker everyday until Feb 10th.

As you may know I budgeted for 20 beer points because I was going out last night.

I honestly didn't expect to use them all but when all was said and done I had had 22 beer points.

So...even after exercising I woke up this morning 18 points in the hole.

Most of this was planned, however, and I can deal with these points through exercise before my week is up Tuesday night.

What I hadn't planned for is the mega carb craving I woke up with this morning...but that is a subject for tomorrows blog.

If it kills me I will make this week work out so that by Tuesday night I am right on plan.

Be healthy!

Alan

Non-Hungry Days

I have blogged in the past about "Hungry Days" and how hard they can be. Yesterday I had a "non-hungry" day.

I have very little doubt that it had everything to do with the 101 Weight Watcher points day I had had the day prior.

Having an "I feel full" day after a splurge day presents its own dilemma.

It sounds kind of ideal doesn't it? I ate too much yesterday and I am not hungry today so if I eat less today it will all balance out.

According to WW this strategy is not a good one and I suspect they are right. I decided to trust them on this.

The problem with the above mentioned scenario is that you end up overly hungry on day three because you didn't eat enough on day two. In reality you have binged and starved (you may not feel like you are starving but you are not giving your body sufficient food). This is the type of situation that leads to more binging.

What we are told to do is just eat normally the next day and make sure we consume all of our daily points allowance. So that is what I did.

I can't say I made 100% the best choices as 6 points went to a small peanut butter candy bar and a sample of chocolate at the Supermarket, but I did make sure that by the time I went to bed I had consumed my entire daily points allowance.

I did my exercise as promised and earned back five of the six points I was in the "negative" for for the week, so now I am only "negative" one point.

Tonight we are going out to a comedy show where drinks will be consumed so I am sure I will be further in the negative by tomorrow but if I stick to my strategy I will be right on plan "points-wise" by the end of the WW week (which is Tuesday).

All is good.

Be healthy!

Alan

Yesterday was a Food Disaster Day...Not the end of the world

Last night I tied one on. It wasn't planned. I hadn't thought I was going out at all....but sometimes life just happens.

Our friend Tim had been staying with us for a while as he lives in Windsor but was teaching at the Institute of Holistic Nutrition here in Toronto. 

Last night was his last night with us and while we had planned to have dinner with wine, we didn't really plan on a "last night out".

After dinner, however, we decided to go to the local Pub the "House on Parliament" for drinks. I knew my weight watcher points had already been used up for the day, but I also knew I had my weekly points allowance and my exercise points so off we went for drinks at the pub.

Although I had already had three glasses of wine I still managed to also have three pints of beer...and a HUGE order of sweet potato fries that I can assure you were not baked in an oven.

The question then became..."how the hell do I figure out how to enter all this in the Weight Watchers Tracker?". This is the type of dilemma that turns people off of Weight Watchers.

Last night I had decided just to move the 49 weekly points allowance into yesterday's points and make the decision that for the rest of the week I will only have my daily points allowance and any new points I generate through exercise.

Today I decided to do my best to be a bit more accurate. It actually wasn't that hard. 

I looked up my points for the wine and beer and entered them on the tracker. The next thing to figure out was the points for the Sweet Potato Fries. The pub I went to does not have nutritional information available so I looked up the Nutritional information for Sweet Potato Fries at the TGIF restaurant as I guessed their fries would be cooked in much the same way. 

When I looked up the nutritional info. at TGIF the website indicated the information was for a "side of fries". I had well more than a "side" of fries so I multiplied the nutritional info by three and calculated the points....it came to 31 whopping points.

So....the grand total at the end of my day yesterday was 101 points (I am allowed 37).

Seems like the end of the world from a weight loss perspective doesn't it? It is not.

Over all, after adding in the 49 weekly points allowance that I am allowed to use at my will, and the activity points I had already earned this week I was in the negative but only by 6 points. I will do 5 points worth of exercise today. This means that as long as I eat just like a normal person today, by tomorrow morning I will only be in the negative by 1 point. 

This goes to show that we can enjoy a good time and still overcome what seems like disaster.

I don't get off scott free, however. I am going to have to be a little more careful the rest of the week.

Looking forward I will use my 37 points daily allowance each day (as I am supposed to) and continue to do 5 points worth of exercise each day. There can be no "skipping the gym" this week.

By tomorrow night I will have paid off my debt and have generated 4 new usable activity points (The five I earn through exercise less the one I was still in the "negative" for). Then on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday I will earn five more activity points each day. This means I still have 19 "fun" points available to use.

This is good news as we will be going out Saturday night so I will need them. It will just be drinks Saturday night as we will eat at home. According to Weight Watcher's beer "cheat sheet" a pint of light beer is 4 points. This means that as long as I have a 36 point day Saturday rather than a 37 point day, I can go out that night and have up to 5 pints of light beer. I think that should do me :-)

I am glad I wrote today's blog. It actually helped me to plan the rest of this week out while simultaneously convincing myself once again that the Weight Watchers plan really is doable for life. I can have fun AND lose weight. Well...I guess the scale will determine that next Wednesday :-)

Be healthy!

Alan