RE-boot

Hello.

You might remember me.  Jaime, 34 year old woman who works for a living with a husband and a 14 year old step son.  You know, the one that used to blog about weight loss complete with charts and graphs from Weight Watchers.

In all serious-ness.  I have been Struggling (yes with a capital S)  Probably since Oct.  I gain a few pounds, I lose a few pounds.  This morning I find myself at 189.4 lbs.  But wait, wasn't I around 182.  Yes, yes.  I am not anymore.

So recommitted myself to this journey, this was actually Tuesday when I stopped on the scale and saw 192.2.  Yes I know that isn't real weight.  I have a theory though.  Nyquil must be 700 points per 2 oz serving (OK so I admit I call it a shot of nyquil, I am not a drinker, every time I take the nyquil my ears get warm-I remember those feelings from back when I was in my 20's*). 

So let me catch you up from the last time I wrote.  I remember writing about the 3 day power outage.  That sucked.  We stayed at my in laws house, which is just over an hour away from our house.  They surprisingly didn't get the same snow storm/ice storm that we got.  The roads were clear.  I want to say that was back in February.  The house is fine.  No real damage, one of the floor boards, or side boards, on the stairs came partially away from the wall, but not too bad.  I think my cat, Kreacher, was super angry with me for all of 3 minutes (he is a lover night a fighter).  Unfortunately for the cats, they were not invited to the in laws, so they got to stay in a house that was 34 degrees.  The dog was with us, since she has no belly fur to be found and even wore her puppy coat, that was the day she came to work with me.

I ended up with what my boss referred to as "the flu" in March.  I am not sure if it was the flu but I was pretty sick.  Since I cannot miss work on Fridays due to weekly payroll I came in super cold medicine medicated.  My boss was holding conversations with me and I was just spaced out.  I warned him I was sick. 

Then I had a few weeks where I was fine.  Then I had my birthday!!! The day after my birthday I started feeling run down again.  2nd cold!!!  I am pretty sure I caught the first round of "the flu" from my husband, he was germy but never got as sick as I did.  The 2nd cold from just last week-a complete mystery. Remember that I work with my bossman.  That is who I see often, he is almost never sick.  Yes I probably picked up cold number 2 from being out and about.  

So that catches you up to last week.  I am feeling 99% better.  I think the last 1% is just allergy related. 

I restarted my assessment with my activelink.  For a few months I was hitting the goals like crazy.  Then it just became too hard, which I am sure it was the fact that I lost 25 lbs, so getting to the goal was harder because you have to be more active to reach your old calorie burns.  So I will not be working out this week.  I think the assessment is over Tuesday or Wednesday.

I hope to post something on here Friday (my official weigh in day for weight watchers). 

I do want to say how happy I am that the sun is out and it is finally warming up.  This has been one tough winter-I think from Jan until March I missed one day a week thanks to snow.  It does not normally snow this much in southeastern pa.

*I have always been super responsible and mature (old) for my age.  Even when I drank if i was planning on going anywhere I had a designated driver.  Ask my friends about the time they got a ride home from a drunk guy, and how I went off, saying I was home and could have picked them up-that it is better to have a slightly ticked off friend and them safe, than them dying, I should mention we were probably in our early 20's when this happened.

week 36 weigh in and Monday goals

Two  weeks ago: 184.8
This week: 185.8
gain of 1 lb

this is from friday.  I need to start using this blog more.  I tend to put it on the back burner when i have a not so good weigh in (i actually think i might have been down from last week, but i cant go back in time and weigh myself). 

so anyway i want to start a list of goals, and check them out every monday and add new ones or adjust (or keep the same).

so im going to start simple, 2 goals

1) count points, stay within range, this might be a bit tricky this week since I took friday off since it was a holiday (i take holidays off from counting points cause really, it gets tedious after a while). currently i get 28 daily points. i eat all of my points (including activity)

2) workout 5 days this week.  i need to rewrite that schedule, but it shouldn't be undoable, ok so friday is the start of my week and i didnt work out on friday (once again due to the holiday).  So far i worked out Saturday and Sunday.  3 more days to go.  I want to utimately aim for 7 points a week on my active link report.  as of yesterday i was at 2. 

no weigh in this week

ok so I have no access to a scale and no control over what I eat (ok well portion sizes are in my control). why you ask?

http://www.dailylocal.com/general-news/20140207/peco-update-outages-now-down-to-285000

PECO is my electric company.  I live in chester county (south eastern pa somewhat near philly) and we had a bunch of snow two weeks ago (13 inches).  then another 3 or so inches just this week.  so then we were expecting more snow followed by ice on Wednesday.  so I go to bed saying, thankfully we haven't lost power.

famous last words.  I woke up at 4am cause im seeing flashes of lights.  it is dark in the house (but it should be at 4am) and the puppy is upset.  a giant tree branch fell and landed on the power lines and the shed two houses over.  we have been without power since 4am Wednesday.

I have a house with everything electric, no fireplace, no woodburning stove, nothing to heat it if the electric is out.  I also have well water (which is super common where I live, but not everywhere) so no power = no water once we lose prime (suction).

so it got cold in the house. wait. it is still cold in the house.  plus the original numbers for chester county reported by peco was something like they service 217,000 homes, and 183,000 of them were without power.  seriously? 

so you say, but Jaime you have a ton of pets, where are they?  Puppy has been traveling with me, we went to work yesterday (also no power, but located in Delaware county) they had generators going along with this scary propane heater (they also gave me a slightly less scary propane heater but still scary).  the birds went to my cousin's house, she happened to be one of the lucky few with power,I took a shower at her house on Wednesday.  apparently the birds are entertaining the kids and my cousins.  my other cousin (her sister) lives a street over from the cousin with power and is without power, so they have been living with the cousin with power.  (im sure the cousin without power still has to go to work, since she works for the hospital). 

so that leaves 3 poor kitties at home.  :( they will be fine, its been slightly warmer outside lately.  we left a lot of laundry in baskets for them to sleep in (ok so I never got around to folding it, but cats love clean laundry)

I have my neighbors watching the house for me, my husband checks on the cats when he goes to work and feeds them. 

so they are predicting our power will be back on by sunday at 11pm.  nuts. 

so im trying to not freak out about this.  there is nothing I can do.  I took today off work so I didn't have to make the journey back to PA (we are staying with the in laws).  I was at the house yesterday running the scary heater (my niece for Christmas a few years ago gave me a carbon monoxide detector-normally I have nothing in my house that causes that, but I hooked that baby up and was like thanks for that gift!!!)  and went to my friends house that is one street over (also no power but she has public water, so she filled up 3 buckets of water for me to flush my toilets).

so my in laws have been feeding us.  which is super nice of them, but they make giant meals.  how are they not 400 lbs?  so I haven't been tracking, I haven't been weighing myself either or even getting to the gym.  so lets hope im not doing too much damage.

so yesterday I finally got my laptop hooked up and plugged in my activelink, I had 3 points.  LOL that is how much running around I did.  nuts. 

currently im at my in laws house, with the puppy (I have an upstairs puppy and a downstairs puppy, cause both puppies are BAD dogs and try to bite each other).  kira is the downstairs puppy.  she even went to work with me yesterday.  :) 

so prepping for the cold for a few days, we unplugged all electronics (we are thinking power surges).  we also drained the rest of the water out of the taps (hoping that the pipes wont freeze burst).  today my husband went and shut off circuit breakers that are doubled up (I think those are oven, well, dryer, ac)

anyone else have any ideas on how to winterize my home?  please send positive vibes/pray for us to get power back soon and for the electric crews to be safe. 

week 34

Last week 186.0
This week: 184.8
loss of 1.2 lb

sweet loss this week. :)  ill take it.  not much to report.  yesterday was a tough eating day, i wanted to throw the towel in and say NO and just end up weighin 400 lbs.  but i ended up playing some Wii U (Pikimen 3, by the way i love that game, i dont think a 33 year old woman is their target market) and the urge for ice cream/sugar/chocolate/bread dipped in olive oil disappeared. 

I am only showing 2 activity points earned this week.  not sure what is going on.  im doing my same workouts, minus the 5K on saturday *but im still walking for 30 minutes, so it should be 4 points vs 2 points, but i showed no points. 

I need to figure this active link thing out better, i mean lets say i walk for 30 minutes and get 0 points but i get 1 point if i walk for 33 minutes, id rather add the 3 minutes and get to eat that lovely point.  plus i know with my weigh loss that it is harder to earn any points.  (to the weight watchers online forums!!)

so anyway, starting tomorrow im doing 30 day shred rotations, I will take measurements and pics (? if my husband will cooperate, he has been getting upset about the massive amount of dietbet pics he needs to take, even though im not anywhere near my target) my goal is to do one 30 day shred workout each day of feb.  this is in addition to my normal workouts (which i have a rotation of those too).

anyway happy super bowl sunday to everyone.  i personally am  going out to dinner with my one buddy (dont worry he is gay and my husband loves him).  we might catch a movie too.  cause i do not care about sports at all (not even the olympics, which my buddy LOVES).  my husband will be at home watching the game.  (funny side story, last year i didnt make plans, so i just up and left and went to see a movie to get away from football, the streets were entirely empty, i was the only one at the theater besides the people that worked there, and i saw silver lining playbook.  LOL so i left football to see a movie that had football in it).

weigh in 33

Week 33: weigh in date 1/24/14
Last week 185.6
This week: 186.0
gain of 0.4 lb

This was a weigh in from friday.  i wish i could write that i had NO clue why i gained weight, but i do have a GIANT idea.  maybe its all that snacking/cheating ive been doing.

but anyway last week i made up a workout plan and stuck it to my fridge. it brings me to the end of jan (it is my normal workout routine, just written down, oh i did replace one gym day with a Wii fit day, since im a fan of the Wii fit, i know do it on fridays).  so far i have been doing them.  i gave up on the doing the 5k every saturday, now i just do 30 minutes on the treadmill (a 5K was taking me 52 minutes or so).

i did not hit my target number of activity points.  but im working towards that.  my target is 7 points per week.

i think starting in Feb im going to start rotating around my 30 day shred and do a 30 day challenge (or 28 days, whatever).  id like to retain some muscle.  I would also like to really track how many inches i have lost.

i have a NSV to report.  i saw my one cousin for the first time since july and she was like WHOA look at you, what have you been doing.  i did tell her that ive been kind of stuck since the holidays happened and she was like that is because you are related to me.  LOL.  my cousin at one point (she was pregnant with her 2nd baby) weighed 330 lbs.  she has lost a ton of weight, she is more or less a size or two larger than me now (yes she lost weight, then she got a divorce and found new love, and gained some back.  oh and the way she lost the weight?  restricting her calories like crazy-not a healthy way.  for example she would work out to burn 500 calories, but she wouldnt only every eat 500 calories.  im not saying she did it the right way).

i told her i was doing weight watchers again.

So I hope to keep checking those workouts off of my print out and keep it up.  i know if i stick to my points and workout that i will lose weight.  i just need to trust the process.   

weigh in 31 and 32

Week 31: weigh in date 1/10/14
last week: 187.8
this week:189.2
gain of 1.4 lb

Week 32: weigh in date 1/17/14
Last week 189.2
This week: 185.6
loss of 3.6

i feel like i should be blogging more often than once every other week.  for week 31 i was on track until wednesday night then i just said nah and ate what i wanted.

for week 32, i opted to actually track my points and attempt to stay on track.  i was still cheating left and right but was able to drop 3.6 lbs. 

i hate to admit that i was cheating, and i need to stop that.  i have better results when im following the WW plan.  also last week i was really lazy, and i opted to not go to the gym all week.  i could blame my husband for part of that but in reality, how hard is it to get to the gym for 30 minutes? 

my goal for activity is to get 7 points this week.  (i was not even close for last week).

im having a slight gym issue. its really nothing.  but there is this guy who comes in with a duffel bag, he plops the bag down and does his working out.  but he does weird working out. and just creeps me out (he kind of looks like he is homeless or hasnt shopped for new clothes since the 1980s).  he has never said anything to me.  but today while i was on the treadmill, he hopped on the one next to me (the entire two rows of treadmills were open, why next to me?) and proceeded to walk backwards on the treadmill.  (this was after wiping down the machine and drinking some water).  so i just did 30 minutes and bolted.  ive also seen this guy walk on the treadmill and jump off and leave the treadmill running at like 2.0 mph.  then jump back on it.  what i dont get is why?  i mean ive seen people doing speed work with running do that, but never so slow.

this kind of reminds me of my old gym, when i was unemployed i would go at 1pm to workout. there was a guy with turrets that would work out with a personal trainer.  so lets say i was wearing a purple shirt, the guy would just start yelling PURPLE!!  you could tell he wasnt just joking around that he had some type of mental issue.  so i just learned to tune him out.

catching up on weigh ins (29 and 30)

first let me just get this out of the way

Week 29: weigh in date 12/27/13
last week: 182.8
this week:185.0
gain of 2.2 lb

Week 30: weigh in date 1/3/14
Last week 185.0
This week: 187.8
gain of 2.8

so yep, read that and know i suck.  gain of 5 pounds over two weeks.  this is what i call lack of motivation.  it is my fault.  I just do not know moderation when it comes to eating, luckily for me there are very few holidays coming up.  (by the way i have no wanting to ever end the holidays are entire cheat days, no counting.  yes i will always be an inner fat girl, even if im skinny on the outside).

So other than that motivation has been super down low.  I had a doc appointment (endocrinologist) which went very well, but I don't think I wrote about it (dec 30th was the date).  Basically besides a slightly higher than normal cholesterol (but it is lower for me, she thinks it is just genetic and maybe if i get down a few more pounds that it would go even lower the number is 252 for the total).  my blood sugars are rocking, 94 fasting, which last time it was 99 and the time before that it was in the 104-106 range.  while im not a diabetic, my father was a type 1 (diagnosed at the age of 6) and i am diagnosed with hashimoto's disease, which is an autoimmune disorder, and once you have one autoimmune disorder you are more prone to others.  the number she was super impressed with was my insulin number. originally when i first started seeing her back in 2008 i was at 22.0, last time i was 9.9, which puts me at the high end of normal.  she said 5 is the ultimate healthy number and that is what im aiming for. 

all of my other numbers are perfectly within range. even my TSH number (which is the reason why i see her) is good (1.0 is my sweet spot, i was at 1.03 or something). 

i flat out told her that since the last time i saw her (in september) that i have probably felt the best that i have felt in a long time.  that was when she started going back into her computer for my records and telling me how far i have come.  she even told me that im doing great with the weight loss and to keep it up (without my prompting her like last time) i did ask her if she had the confetti ready and was going to do cartwheels.  (i love this doc by the way, she is so cool). 

I did ask her a question about something i read on the internet (i tell her that i ask her these questions because i dont know if everything you read on the internet is true).  anyway im sure others have read articles that state that steady state cardio is putting women into a hypothyroid state.  (ok i had to explain this to a friend of mine, so just running on the treadmill for a certain period of time is steady state cardio).  so my doc was like yes that is correct, but that is more for people who are working out for like 6 hours at a time, like Olympic athletes.  i was like well i dont plan on doing more than an hour at the gym, so im good, and she said correct. 

by the way my doc probably thinks im a bit on the nutty side.  a while ago i read that jillian michaels master your metabolism book, which jillian michaels is hypothyroid (without medicine).  so she (or the doc that wrote the book with her, not sure which one) mentioned staying away from certain veggies, cause they contain hormones in them that can hurt the thyroid-soy is one of these products too.  one of these veggies falls into my fave foods ever, BRUSSELS SPROUTS.  so i asked her if i had to stop eating them.  she did tell me to limit it to 3 times a week but other than that im good.  also im not supposed to seek out soy (if it is in something that i already eat, fine, but dont go buying soy burgers there are other options).

so how many of her patients does she have to limit the amount of brussels sprouts servings?  probably just me.

besides the doc appointment where everything was wonderful, i lost my activelink for a few days.  like couldnt find it anywhere.  i ordered a new one on thursday (the first day back to work) and found it thursday after work (in the washer of all places).  unfortunately i couldnt cancel my order :(  so now i have two of these things.  i figure that ill just hold on to it, at some point i will lose this one (FOREVER) and have a backup.  or if a friend of mine admits to doing WW i might be like hey want this?  i know my friend sarah does WW but i think she does it at meetings, not sure how that works.

so my goal for active link is 7 points per week.  I will start reporting on that soon.  also since because i hit that higher number im back to 29 points per day.  (i really need to shape up when it comes to counting, ive been eyeballing things and taking small bites and not counting.  that is what leads to me not losing weight. 

also my endocrinologist made a comment that the next time id see her id be into the 180s (i think i was just at 190 on her scale, that was after breakfast and i was fully clothed, the ones you see are before my shower in the am and no clothing).  i see her again on june 30.  so i hope to blow that out of the water and be 179 or less (6 months right?)