Saturday, June 29, 2013

the squeaky wheel

how does that phrase go? the squeaky wheel gets the grease (oil?).  i just googled it cause its been a while since ive heard it. 
anyway the other day i emailed weight watchers with this

Questions:  I ordered the activelink the same day that i started weight watchers online (june 14), i received my activelink June 19, which i was excited about.  Unfortunately the item did not work at all, I ended up calling Philips directly and they are sending me a replacement unit, but I feel like i should get some type of compensation for having to wait additional time to receive my activelink.  I do not expect a full refund, but even just a free month or two of activelink subscription would make it worth the wait.  Today is June 28th and I have yet to get my replacement unit but I am still in the 7-10 business day waiting period.

i just got a response back.   and im happier with what they gave me vs what i asked for. 

Dear Jaime,
We apologize for any problems you've experienced.
We will gladly extend your next billing date to 9/28/2013, giving you 2 free weeks.

sweet.  two free weeks of WW.  im sure he couldnt have given me anything towards my activelink since i never got it.

so YAY, it shows it doesnt hurt to ask.
thank you weight watchers

i did just get my activelink today by the way.  with a return label for the defective one.  hopefully they are able to figure out what is going on with it.  the one i got worked just fine (i did have to reset my computer).

so i am in the 8 day assessment period.

that is what it looks like with the case on it (if you remove the case it has the USB port on the one side).

the box, i had read that it looked like a pregnancy test package and they are right.  :) 

anyway my husband and i went out to longhorn last night for dinner, i ate a crazy amount of points, but im ok with it.  i counted everything.  53 points.  haha. 
and i had to weigh in yesterday for my 2nd diet bet. i did it after dinner and i was 203.2 lbs. 
here are the embarrassing pics for you guys:
i never have taken pics of my feet before, i feel like my toes look wrong.  i wear size 10 shoes, so maybe that is why they look so small?  anyway like before, my scale tells me how much i weigh and then it also says how many calories i need in order to maintain my weight (so that is the 2605).  and my husband set up a second light so that we could see the display without having to readjust the brightness.
there i am on the scale.  my hair is puffy for some reason (those people with naturally curly hair know how temperamental it can be) i had to run through the rain to get to my car yesterday after eating at long horn, which is probably why it had poofed. 
if you guys want to join my diet bet, it starts tomorrow and it is open to anyone.  you dont have to share your embarrassing pics though, just with dietbet. the link to it is in yesterdays entry.
and a bonus for reading this entire thing
the puppy being cute (kira).  we have been having a week long thunderstorms in the afternoon and this was between two of them.  she actually had her head between her front legs looking at me like Is it over?  (see that blanket? she stole it out of the closest a few months ago and i just let her have it,  her baby, the black and white cat-knows how to open doors, so they work together to get things they want. that blanket was my dad's). 



Friday, June 28, 2013

Weight watchers weigh in #2

Last week: 201.8 lb
this week: 199.6 lb
loss of 2.2 lb

awesome weigh in. here is my progress report.

I counted some pretty heavy duty lawn mowing (and i was dripping with sweat when i was done) as activity. i was doing that for more than 30 minutes too, so i dont feel guilty about the M&Ms i ate afterwards.  im still not great at tracking my healthy checks. 

did you notice that i crossed over to onederland?  Also with this crossing over im back to 30 points per day.  i lost that one point i got last week.  he will be missed (i like eating in case you cannot tell). 

I want to start keeping track of my average points eaten per day just to see how it changes over time, plus i have another blogger buddy that does that, she is on maintenance and averages like 38 or something per day (im pulling this from memory, dont kill me). 

so lets put lasts weeks here too:
assigned 30 points per day, plus all 49 weekly points and activity points should be eaten
Friday: 33
Satuday: 44
Sunday: 33
Monday: 35
Tuesday: 39
Wednesday: 37
Thursday: 37
Total: 258
Average: 36.9

and this weeks:
assigned 31 points per day, plus all 49 weekly points and activity points should be eaten
Friday: 43
Satuday: 32
Sunday: 35
Monday: 38
Tuesday: 41
Wednesday: 43
Thursday: 37
Total: 269
Average: 38.4

so that isnt bad right?  i also have no clue what my goal weight should be (ive had this convo with my endo and she suggests what i weighed in high school-at that point in time it was 10-15 under what i weighed in high school, doesnt help that i wasnt a skinny child).  so every week i want to access if i should still be losing and for now it is a strong yes (probably will change as i get towards my lowest adult weight 174, im 5'5" tall, at 174 i was entering into size 8 pants, most of my weight is in my upper body and my boobs). 

if you look at my progress report for Friday you will see i spent a buttload of points on lunch, its cause i had five guys!!! they now have a single serving of fries on their menu (did you know that their regular size fries is meant to feed 2 or more people? yea i can eat an entire batch of them myself and still want ice cream).  i think im going to get the same meal again today.  last week my boss paid for my lunch for me going to court for him.  this week im going to have to foot the bill.

my dinner tonight will probably be 13 ish points.  my husband has been wanting to go to longhorn lately.  we almost went last night, the power went out for 1.5 hours (thanks to thunderstorms) so he was on his way home from work and i was hungry so i agreed to go out, thinking that if the power came back on that meant i should eat at home.  and wouldnt you know, he is 10 mins from home and its back on!!! i was so happy.  so we had stuffed peppers instead (made with brown rice and ground turkey). 

there are a few hurdles coming up this week. we are going to my in laws house in jersey for dinner (?) at 4pm on saturday.   who knows what we will be eating. they are also the type that always have dessert with their dinners.  Also we have the 4th of july on thursday, which means BBQ.  my cousin is having a get together, but i told her i wasnt sure what was going on with my in laws that id get back to her.  Im sure if i showed up at my cousins house there would be turkey burgers, she is very calories oriented.  and the nice topper, according to my app on my phone my period is due to show up on the 6th.  so lets hope for a small loss this up coming week. 

and maybe one day ill get my activelink replacement.  im really itching to use it, but everyday i check the mail and its like NO ITS NOT HERE YET.  :(  according to them it would take 7-10 business days, so today is 7.  seriously though its not my fault the original one didnt work. 

so i have a dietbet starting on sunday.  i just found it is opened to everyone, so please join me.  it is a $25 buy in and you have to have a digital camera to upload your photos.  but here is the link: http://www.dietbet.com/games/16789
right now there are three of us. i hope more people join.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

feeling in control

i just wanted to document my feeling in control. this is in reguards to dieting.  a lot of the times i feel like im standing on a tightrope and will fall off any second. 
so as of the last week or so i feel completely in control, completely able to do this. (what is this? finally get to my goal weight and stop having an issue with eating). 
we will see if the "in control" feeling conflicts with PMS, that should be this upcoming week. 
Weight watchers is going well, i have yet to cheat on it.  i am still not working out.  this isnt like me at all.  i have no clue what to do with my extra free time. 
i am starting another diet bet (i am still on my first one but you can run up to 5 games at a time) on sunday.  this is with a group of friends from facebook.  I wonder if it is open to anyone, if you really want to join just let me know and I will find out from the person who started it.  the buy in is $25 and you have to lose 4% of your body weight in 4 weeks. 

Friday, June 21, 2013

weight watchers weigh in #1

Last week: 208.6 lb
this week: 201.8 lb
loss of 6.8 lb

so i lost so much this week (probably the real total is more like 3 lbs than six, being that i was bingeing the day before hand) that i got an extra point each day this week.

let me see if this works:
Yay it worked.  :)  if you look hard at this you will see that i used all but one weekly points allowance.  im not good at tracking the healthy guidelines (doesnt mean i dont do them), i should work on that. 
so my daily allowance was 30.  on the website if you hover over each of those bars it tells you how many points you used there.  i didnt go to the gym once, i kind of felt like a bump on a log, but i wanted to get used to it.  i didnt use that final point cause i couldnt figure out what i had last night that was 1 point in the house.  i have a lot of fruit and veggies but those are all 0. then i have dessert type items that are 2 or 3 points.  so i just said eh im not even hungry.
overall my hungry level wasnt bad.  saturday was the worst, but that was because i restarted WW on a whim.  so i was not prepared (not really an excuse being that i could have just gotten off my butt and gone to the grocery store).

as of today my daily allowance is 31.  sweet. 
i mentioned to the lady who notorizes documents for me (im an office manager i have the oddest job ever-from going to court to payroll to notorizing documents...) that i restarted weight watchers, want to know what she said?  isnt that expensive?  i was like oh not really i do it online, its not too bad, plus now they have apps.  i mean i guess spending any money over something being free is a lot.  she did ask me how many points are in a grilled cheese from 5 guys.  but i think that have one of those cell phone blockers in their office, it never told me until i got out to the car.  oh she also asked if i had to weigh in in front of people.  LOL no, i used to do the meetings and it was always private.  they would print something and just put it in your booklet. never yelled out JAIME WEIGHS 300 lbs.  (i do have a story about that in high school-i was 181 lbs-a lot more than any other kid, they were doing physical fitness testing, we had to do it twice a year, things like height, weight, timed 1 mile run, push ups, situps, pull ups, stretches-everything was measured.  the one girl in my class had broken her leg and was helping the gym teachers out, so she was at a desk, someone stood over the scale and yelled out to her how much each person weighed.  this was embarassing).
i actually find that we eat out less often while on WW, so that really im probably spending the same with the cost of of the plan or even less actually.  i do spend a bit more on fruits and veggies, but you are supposed to eat those things. :)
i also dont buy a lot of WW food, im not a fan of reheated meat, so all of those smart ones (well like 95% of them) are out the window.  they are good when you are in a rush though.  i do enjoy their giant fudge pops though. they are pretty awesome, they taste a lot like a frosty from wendy's and only 3 points. i know a lot of their food has changed since they switched over to their 360 program.  they used to have a huge sized bagel that was pretty buttery tasting.  not sure if those still exists.  and their yogurt used to be pretty tastey, but i think they are now partnered up with yoplait.  the odd thing is that if it says WW on it my husband wont touch it.  so i just buy the shoprite brand of most things (cheaper anyway) and he will eat it.  currently he has been eating my string cheese.  if i was to buy WW string cheese (even though its the same) he would never touch it.  maybe i should start buying WW stuff.  more food for me.
anyway i hope i can keep up the good eating.  it does take me a bit longer to pack my foods in the morning, and im always afraid of forgetting something. 

Thursday, June 20, 2013

activelink-not yet

i got my activelink yesterday.  it didnt seem to work.  i have to admit that i have almost no patience when it comes to electronics, so i couldnt get it to work (let me remind you that i have a fitbit and a nike fuel band, im not unfamiliar with these types of devices).  so i was like let me just let my husband do it. 
i made dinner while he worked on it.  it never lit up.  after about 20 minutes he gives up and calls the 1800 number. she gives a few suggestions, none of them work.  so they are sending me a new one.
oh well. duds happen right?
they want the broken one back (cause what am i going to do with it?) to see what was wrong with it.  so lets hope number 2 works. :) 
probably will get it next week. 
i had my first fit bit fail me (wouldnt charge anymore) and i sent it back and got a new one with almost no delay.  by the way i dont use the fitbit anymore because i lost the power cord (where did i put that?) i actually have two that work-i got the second version with the stairs for xmas one year.  i should seriously offer to mail them to someone.  i saw the fitbit on sale at targe the other day for 89 bucks.  i dont know how much the charger is though.  (i sent a friend my other charger cause she found a fitbit at the beach).  im sure one day it will turn up. :) 

i still have my nike fuel band, i just havent been wearing it.  im going to keep that one by the way.
i like the idea of the activelink challenging me. 
tomorrow is weigh in day with weight watchers. it should be a good one.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

dietbet? and WW progress

has anyone heard of dietbet (.com)?  i have a friend on facebook that is constantly doing one, so i kept going that is interesting.
just in case you dont know what it is. 
you get 4 weeks to lose 4% of your body weight.  you have a buy in fee.  and its a group of people-so at the end anyone who gets to the 4% gets to split the pot.  (there are rules, you have to submit photos of a scale reading with a word and a full  body photo including your face.  if you win you have to do the same thing at the end.  by the way i suck at scale pics.  my bathroom is dark-if i had the flash on it would clear out the display. so yeah, who votes to see my sweet pics?)
i believe the pics are private by the way, but ill go ahead and show you guys.  cause well, i dont care.  LOL

like my outfit of choice?  i figure i can remember to wear pink and purple.  my husband took this photo.  i have this horrible blinking thing any time the camera is out (as in most pics my eyes are closed, this annoyed the photographer at my wedding).  enjoy looking at my pudge, cause its going away.  my husbands was directed to not show the liter box in the pic either (it is right next to the scale in front of the heater). im sure no one wants to see cat turds (yes i realize i could have scooped the poop before hand, but any time i touch the cat litter it makes cats appear out of nowhere with more poop).
ugh i cant even read that.  it says 207.8.  i hope they accept my photo.  maybe they can lighten it up? (the word under the scale is for verification) maybe i need more light in my bathroom in general.  i took the pic like 20 minutes after dinner.  hoping to give me a slight advantage in losing a few pounds right away.  my scale also tells me how many calories i need in order to maintain my weight.  except for some reason it shows me at being an inch shorter than i am (it flashes your height and age and a woman before giving me my last reading).  my scale is a bit too smart for me.  oh it also thinks im 28.  i guess i got it when i was 28 and set it? 
so onto other news.  Weight watchers is going well.  i found a great lunch that keeps me really full for a long time.  ready for it?
3 oz of cooked chicken breast (3 points), 1 serving of zesty fat free italian dressing (0 points-i found this by accident, it is a kraft product, i used it in some recipe and really liked it).  enough romaine lettuce to fill up the rest of my big bowl, and two servings of croutons (2 points-a serving size of croutons is 7 grams. yeah, id like to taste my food).  today i have popchips as a snack with lunch, those are 3 points.  8 points for lunch.  and crazy amounts of filling. 
oh i eat romaine bagged lettuce, cause 1 it is super easy, 2 for some reason i have issues with carrots.  any time i eat a carrot or something that has carrot in it (such as organic fruit leathers) i get this weird pain in my diaphram.  it took a while to figure out what was causing it.  i really miss snacking on carrots though.  they were a good veggie to grab and go.  on a scale the pain isnt too bad, just a discomfort.  someone suggested that i was allergic to the lye they use to clean them.  but it happens every time i eat them. 
for those in my area (south eastern pa) i got my bagged salad mix buy one get one free at giant.  which is a lot of salad for just me.
so im doing really well with WW.  i have 24 weekly points left as of this morning. and 3 days to eat them.  i really want to try to eat all of those points, that way i never have to suffer with hunger (and i wont ruin my metabolism). 

Sunday, June 16, 2013

change of plans

so i rejoined weight watchers (online).
the reasons, i am great at working out, but i suck on the diet front.  and im going to treat this differently than i did in the past.  im going to eat ALL points, even those weekly points, im going to eat activity points.  if im hungry, it will be my fault for eating the wrong stuff.
i ordered an activelink.  you guys should know that i love technology.  :)  so i have an app on my phone with the tracker info on it, and their bar code scanner (not sure why its not on the same app).  once i get the activelink ill update on how it works.  (i have an idea of how it works) and if i like it. 
i restarted weight watchers on friday i was 208.6.
the hardest part of weight watchers is figuring out what to eat the first few weeks.  then it becomes second nature.
for example, yesterday this is what i ate along with points.  i get 30 daily points, 49 weekly points, so i went over a bit.

Breakfast:
Jimmy Deans Delight: 6 points
Banana: 0 points
Starbucks frappachino: 5 points
total breakfast: 11 points.

lunch:
3 oz chicken breast: 3 points
Mayo: 3 points
1 cup cherries: 0 points
total 6 points
(after this i was hungry way earlier than when we ate but we were out and i was getting crabby, see a learning curve)

Dinner:
1/4th avocado: 2 points
1/2 oz swiss cheese: 1
max and erma's turkey burger: 24 points
Asperagus: 0 points
total dinner: 27 points

snack:
Apple slices: 0 points
total used: 44 (30 points for the day with an additional 14 points used of my weekly points). 
even though i ate the turkey burger, i was still really hungry last night.  i ended up just going to bed early cause i was hungry, like i said it is my fault for not eating the right stuff

today is already a better day (and i realize spending 5 points on a coffee drink is dumb, but i drank the last one today, so that wont be showing up on my tracker starting tomorrow).

Breakfast: jimmy deans delight: 6 points
banana: 0 points
frapp: 5 points
total 11 points

lunch:
wendy's small chili: 5 points
wendy's ceaser side salad-no dressing: 2 points (this was my attempt at making a taco salad and my husband wanted wendy's since it is fathers day i opted to say yes).
total 7 points

snack:
Peach: 0 points
i have 12 remaining points.  with 32 remaining weekly points (to be used up by thursday night). 

for now im going to opt out of working out until i get used to this.  but ill be back on track soon enough.  i like to eat. therefore i like to move it too so i can eat more.  :)

i wont be posting my daily intake (unless someone is really interested in it).  with weight watchers (now) most fruit and veggies are 0.  i was kind of disappointed that the 1/4 avocado was 2 points (it was on my turkey burger).  i kind of remember them saying to aim for 3 servings of each fruit and veggies, so that is my goal. anything over that you should really start counting points for it. 

tonight i go grocery shopping, wish me luck.  haha.  i would have thought the bar code scanner was better than it was (most things it cannot find).  i see them advertise it on their tv commercials (along with the fact that you can still drink wine,  OMG i am not a drinker but i guess im the odd one).

i was checking out their website last night and most of what they say is common sense, dont keep food out in the open, pre cut up veggies and fruit so you have something quick to go to when your hungry.  write points values on packages.
weigh in days are fridays. by the way.

Monday, June 10, 2013

weekly weigh in

last week: 206.0
today: 205.6
loss of 0.4 lb

i am happy with a loss, there were too many eating out incidents this last week.  two separate trips to red robin (counted every single calorie). not to mention a cop out of eating a stromboli last night, which i still have half left (oh so good). 
i did wonderfully with my working out every two days and then one off.  my one friend made the comment that she hates exercising, which got me to thinking maybe she thinks i love it?  honestly i dont.  i hate every minute of it.  and i hate those OH i wish i had <insert item here> (like a gym membership, extra time, a husband who watched a kid without complaining, etc).  there are a lot more things id love to do with my "free time" than log miles at the gym.
oh and my heart rate monitor decided to not work.  i have this issue every time i change the battery, it works randomly.  so im opting to not wear it and just work out for one hour each time.  i guess i could try to change the battery in the chest strap. for those who have heart rate monitors how do you handle it?  eventually ill get fed up enough ill buy a new one.  but the batteries only last about a year to a year and a half.  i do know that you need to wash that chest strap every once in a while (not just rinse it like i do) cause that will cause it to stop transmitting the info over. but that has already been tried in this case. just in case yo are wondering i have a polar whatever, ft 4 or something. 
oh i also wanted to report what i did not eat this week, just to show you how i do have a tiny bit of will power.
Friday at work a half dozen of donuts from dunkin donuts showed up (along with a coffee just for me).  i pawned the donuts off on my bossman, number 3 in charge and the guy who does the truck minor repairs.  i did drink the coffee and got jittery from it (i only have one coffee a day, this was the first time i attempted a second one). 
Saturday i was out at dinner with my friends at Red robin, my friend was nice and got us refills on our french fries.  i ate one extra fry (the guy gave us two overflowing baskets). 
just last night, i was over helping the same friend who ordered the extra fries with eharmony, and her sister (who is an awesome baker) had made some cupcakes that were vanilla, with chocolate frosting with peanut butter in the middle.  OMG.  i said no thanks.  i did eat about 5 peanut butter M&Ms while there, then i took the remaining bags that were given to us and put them away.  I do have a cupcake at home, but i took it home for my husband. not for me. (did you catch that im helping my friend online date? )

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

failed

so after i wrote that entry last week i went off the deep end.  i guess for me that means eating everything in site and not working out. 
no official weigh in.  no offiicial measurements.  but phase 2 is going. 
im going to do it differently so i dont feel so umm....BUSY.  and um constricted.  (i am sure other people who have food issues feel the same way i do).
so im going to weigh in on mondays.  i was back on track saturday and sunday, i was feeling a bit sick so i didnt work out.  but monday morning i was 206.0 on the nose. 
im going to weigh in mondays for now on, and im going to report it even if it sucks.  oh phase 2 is called awesome summer and it runs from june 1 until September 1.  this is a challenge put down by a friend on another site.  feel free to join us. :)
my work out schedule is going to look like this, if i worked out yesterday and the day before i get a day off.  so like today, i worked out yesterday but i did not work out sunday, so i work out tonight. 
i should say that the entire month of june wasnt lost.  i have developed some muscles from 30 day shred.  I am going to shelf that DVD for now, i need a break from jillian.
last night i worked out at the gym for 500 calories (i originally told myself to just go for 30 minutes but then opted to finish my workout since i was already there).  i did their weight circuit. 
so what got me back on track is a big sad actually.  i had decided that i didnt care if i was 400 lbs, that i just want to eat.  then i went food shopping.  i went to grab some potato rolls for my husband, which is across from the freezer section.  there were two very obese people standing there, red in the face, huffing and puffing, they had just come from taking their blood pressure (at the pharmacy counter) i only know that part cause the person they were with asked how the readings went.  the walk from the pharmacy to the bread section is probably less than a minute.  but that walk has these people out of breathe and flushed. 
i dont want to be that person.
i do have a NSV for you guys.  my blood pressure was almost normal (top number was a bit high, i think it was 147/77) when i went to the endocrinologist on friday.  Also my labs have come back looking better (still need improvement).  my blood sugar was 101 (fasting) which is 1 point too high.  my other number (i think she said insulin) was 13, originally 22 about a year ago,  and 15 last time.  i talked to my endo about my lack of taking the metformin, (for those who dont know it causes me stomach issues-which leads me running to the  bathroom,  im on the extended release too) so we talked about me taking it at lunch time instead of dinner time (i dont like taking it then having to work out a few hours later and ending up with the tummy issues).  so now i have my pill bottle at work (some at home too) and im taking it with lunch.  i dont have diabetes but if i dont listen to the doc im going to end up with it.
doc is happy that im continuing on with the working out and counting my calories, she understands that it is super hard to keep up with the calorie counting, she actually suggested an app on my phone to count calories (i have my fitnesspal but i dont really use it, i like a handwritten journal). oh she wants me to keep track of my butt issues.  haha.  i was like how about i just star it and see if the metformin is interacting with something causing the issues. 
she eventually wants me taking 2 pills a day.  but i cannot see stomaching two of these pills.