Pepperidge Farm Cherry Pomegranate Bagel Review

When I went grocery shopping on Sunday, it wasn’t at my usual grocery store. It was the same chain, but in a different town. I came across a new line of Pepperidge Farm products; Fruit & Grain breads and bagels. There were 2 new flavors of bagels; Cherry Pomegranate and Cranberry Blueberry. These bagels are a bit smaller than the regular ginormous bagels that you usually see, but they are still good size and are much larger than the mini bagels that I’d been buying. I decided to give the Cherry Pomegranate a try and I’m glad I did. The nutritional stats are 160 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, and 3 grams of fiber (3 WW points). I have been eating them untoasted, with just a dab of light butter on them. Very satisfying. I’d like to try the Cranberry Blueberry bagel next or perhaps one of the new breads which include Cranberry Orange, Blueberry Acai, and Apple Pomegranate.

It’s been a while. I went to my meeting last week after not being able to attend the week before. I gained 2.6 pounds! Not good. I’m back on track so I at least feel good about that. A girlfriend in my WW group has asked to swap points trackers and I believe this will help keep me a bit more honest and be the push I need to actually track. It’s working so far and I tracked religiously over the weekend and was able to stay away from many, many temptations. I also went grocery shopping yesterday to the tune of $331 so I have no excuses about not having the appropriate foods to eat.

T.G.I.F.

I’m exhausted and I’m not really sure why. All I know is that it was a true feat of determination to get myself to work today and that’s after having yesterday off. Not that I lounged the day away yesterday, watching TV and eating bonbons (although too much trail mix was consumed), but I was running around with my daughter for a dentist appointment and Halloween costume hunting. I know that yesterday’s rain and cold made for a deep chill permeating my body which I can’t seem to get rid of. Today was supposed to be much better; it’s not raining, but it’s still too chilly for me. Honestly, I’d just like to be in bed with the covers yanked over my head.

I am looking forward to this weekend. I have a “date” with my sister-in-law, one of my all time favorite people. It’s been entirely too long since we’ve gotten time together so I’m really excited. We’re going to our favorite Italian restaurant and I’m sure there will be some meatball consumption involved. We will be partaking in some competitive bowling thereafter so hopefully I’ll burn some of those calories by doing that. I’m not going to stress too much about the meal, I will just be conscious of my choices and enjoy myself without going overboard.

Off to get some more coffee *yawn*.

Today is Love Your Body Day 2008

“Do you love what you see when you look in the mirror? Hollywood and the fashion, cosmetics and diet industries work hard to make each of us believe that our bodies are unacceptable and need constant improvement. Print ads and television commercials reduce us to body parts — lips, legs, breasts — airbrushed and touched up to meet impossible standards. TV shows tell women and teenage girls that cosmetic surgery is good for self-esteem. Is it any wonder that 80% of U.S. women are dissatisfied with their appearance? Women and girls spend billions of dollars every year on cosmetics, fashion, magazines and diet aids. These industries can't use negative images to sell their products without our assistance. Together, we can fight back.”

National Love Your Body Day 2008

Check out the site link above. I'm already seeing the effects of this type of advertising on my 10 year old daughter. I try hard to instill self-love and the importance of being healthy above all else. It's troubling to me how much these 4th grade girls have already been brainwashed. So ladies... love your bodies, flaws and all, and teach your daughters the same.

Salmon Burger Review

A couple of years ago I stumbled upon some salmon burgers in the frozen fish market section of my grocery store. They’ve remained a staple in my diet since that day. I adore them. They are somewhat processed salmon meat with herbs and spices, coated in a breaded concoction. They’re quick and delicious either just by themselves or on a light bun. One day I saw a different brand of them that drew my attention. They seemed to be a bit less processed and had great nutritional info to boot so I bought them to try. Huge mistake. As soon as I started microwaving the first burger (at work no less…) I could tell by the pungently nasty odor that was quickly filling the kitchen that it wasn’t going to be pretty. I don’t quite know how to describe it but it definitely wasn’t the usual salmon-y smell from my usual burger. It was more of a putrid, greasy fish smell. Honestly, it was revolting. The amount of grease that had oozed out of that thing while it was nuking was remarkable! Gross. It was lumpy and chunky which, you would assume meant nice big chunks of salmon, but not so much. There were fatty chunks… ew; I’m getting nauseated just remembering it. I actually did get the courage to pinch off the tiniest of pieces and put it in my mouth, just so I could be sure that my initial reaction was correct. It barely made it past my lips when I was spitting it in the trash. OMG, it was most disgusting thing I’ve had in my mouth in a long time.

Excellent Brand (Sea Choice):

Appalling Brand (Trident):

No stars!

Scurvy Anyone?

Today’s food log:

Oatmeal/brown sugar/milk
Salmon burger/light bun
Veggie egg roll
WW cookie
Egg/light eng muffin/cheese/turkey bacon
Hostess 1 pt. cupcake/ ½ cup milk

What is lacking? Hmm, maybe something green? Not much dairy either. Very little water. I seem to be doing great points-wise the last couple of days, but I am having a problem getting in all of the notional requirements. Lately it seems that the occasional apple (usually smothered in Nutella… see below) is the only fruit or veggie that I’ve been consuming.

I’m vowing right here and now that from this moment until my next official weigh-in on the 23rd, I will concentrate on getting in more fruits and vegetables. I will also try my best to chug the H2O and drink fewer diet sodas. I think I’ve been relying on them a bit too much lately for a caffeine boost.

Well, I’ve got a few points left for the day; I guess I’ll go see what I can scrounge up for vegetation. My fresh fruit supply is completely depleted. I think I have one lonely can of mandarin oranges in the cupboard. That’ll have to do until I can get to the grocery store tomorrow.

Nik + Nutella ≠ Good Weigh In

I had a less-than-stellar weekend; food-wise anyway. I’m going to miss my WW meeting and weigh-in this week because my youngest daughter has a dentist appointment. I still think I’ll be able to recover from the weekend in the next couple of days, but I guess this means that I’ll have another week before having to “officially” weigh in. So, what did I trip up on this weekend? Let’s make a list; shall we?

Gill’s Hot Italian Sub (at least it was a “mini”)
Several large bites of my husband's leftover sub
Chips
Frozen Yogurt (from the carton)
WAY too much Nutella (the nectar of the Gods!)

I did a little shopping by myself on Saturday while my parents took my daughter’s to my niece’s birthday party. It was nice; I haven’t had a chance to do that in a very long time. I wasn’t seriously tempted by anything at the food court; I even stopped at the grocery store to get some fresh sushi for lunch instead of doing fast food. But then, my husband put in his request for a sub from the most incredible sub shop on the planet. There is nothing that compares to these sandwiches; nothing. I actually worked there during high school. Let’s just say that what they didn’t pay me in wages, I ate in subs. I was good and only got myself a mini, which is probably about 6 inches long. I didn’t forego the cheese (1 slice of provolone) or the Italian oil. After all, it’s the oil that makes the sandwich so incredible. I did stay away from their amazing macaroni salad, even though I got some for my husband. I’m usually able to eat ½ of the sandwich and then save the other ½ for the next day but I didn’t do that this time. Nope, the entire thing was down my gullet in record time. Damn, it was good!

I also had a few of nice crisp apples this weekend. Yummy macintoshes… only problem is that they were slathered with copious amounts of Nutella. Although the stuff has approximately the same nutritional properties as peanut butter (pb has a bit more protein), the amount of it that I ate was completely unnecessary. My girls do adore it, but I’ll either have to get better at rationing myself around it, or not get it anymore. That stuff is dangerous!

Week 2 Results

Another 1.6 down for a total of 6.4. I received my 5 pound sticker; I just love those little golden stars. I had loads of them on my WW “score card” the first time around. 130 pounds worth is a lot of stars. So I’ve now got the first of about 10 that I hope to be getting. I'm such a sticker whore. I am a little bummed because I know that if I’d had a better weekend food-wise, I would have lost even more; but I really did get my shit together starting Monday and at least it came in as a loss. I really would have flipped if I hadn’t lost anything or… Heaven forbid… GAINED!

Lean Cuisine Butternut Squash Ravioli Review

I will openly admit that, before restarting WW, it had been a long while since a Lean Cuisine had seen the inside of my microwave. Now that I’m not buying lunch out, I’ve resorted to throwing a LC or can of soup into my bag to bring to work for lunch. I had a few left in the freezer to finish up; some of my old faithful flavors such as Margarita Pizza and Spaghetti with Meat Sauce. After several days of that, my stash was depleted and I needed to replenish it. I stood in awe in front of the LC display at my grocery store. When had they come out with so many new varieties? It also seemed that they were now making a conscious effort to include more vegetables in their product; something that was sorely lacking before. I took a few minutes to scan my selections and decided that one that I wanted to try was called Butternut Squash Ravioli. This was a little out of my comfort zone. I love me some ravioli… but butternut squash ravioli? The picture on the front of the package was so attractive, and the veggies looked incredibly tempting.

I brought it with me yesterday to heat up for dinner before leaving my office to meet my girlfriend for a drink before our event. I didn’t want to go hungry, lose my willpower, and end up ordering a huge order of sweet potato fries. I was very, very pleased with this meal. It smelled delicious, looked delicious (very similar to the box photo), and was a pretty healthy portion as well. There were lots of nice veggies including snap peas and carrots. The sauce was tasty and not too salty; which can sometimes be the case with these products. There were 7 ravioli in amongst the vegetables and they were sizable; definitely 2 bites/piece size.

I chomped into the first ravioli and OMG… it was Heaven. I was unprepared for it to be that good. I’d expected something perhaps a little bland, but it had a delicious buttery flavor that was slightly sweet. After that, I ate all of my veggies before concentrating on the rest of those little buggers. I didn’t want to muddy the flavor of them by mixing them with anything else. They truly were incredible.

The nutritional information is 350 cals, 9 gm of fat, and 6 gm of fiber (7 WW points). This is a bit more than I usually like in my frozen meals, but it was worth it in this case. I did happen upon this strange nugget of something or other in there and it turns out to be walnut pieces. They didn’t have a taste and added nothing to the meal. I can’t help but wonder if they could have saved some calories and fat if they’d left them out. I don’t think anybody would have noticed or missed them.

This will absolutely be something I stock in vast quantities in my freezer!

Pros vs. Cons

Why do I always look at the negatives and not the positives? I, without a doubt, tend to be a “cup is half empty” kind of person. Take my eating over the past 3 days. There were bad points… but there were also some good points and some really smart decisions. Often, the only way for me to sort this stuff out and see it more clearly is to do a pros/cons list.

FRIDAY (funeral/reception)
Pros
1. Ate something healthy before the funeral so I wasn’t starving for the reception
2. Skipped the entire section of desserts which included pie, cake, cookies, etc.
3. Didn’t eat any more once I got home
Cons
1. Indulged in small portions of less-than-WW friendly foods including homemade mac & cheese, meatballs, and sandwich with white roll and mayo
2. Swiped one (incredibly delicious) chocolate chip cookie from my husband’s plate

SATURDAY (birthday party)
Pros
1. Went a little late and had some soup for lunch before going
2. Skipped the ice cream birthday cake
Cons
1. Skipped the bbq portion of the party therefore passing up burgers/hotdogs/potato salad, & chips
2. Ate approx. 5 pieces of chocolate from my kids’ piñata booty.

SUNDAY (kids’ play date)
Pros
1. Did not get the Big Mac I was really craving
2. Skipped any popcorn or snacks at the movie theatre
Cons
1. Had 4 piece McNugget and ½ large fries instead of the salad I’d intended
2. Had a 6” meatball sub for dinner (oh, and a margarita)

So basically I ate all of my flex points by Friday and then continued to eat over my daily points allowance for two days thereafter. I was able to not go completely hog wild, which has always been my style. I’m starting out today with a good breakfast and a healthy lunch that I brought from home. I have an event to attend tonight and am meeting a friend for a drink before hand. I brought a Lean Cuisine to eat in my office before meeting her at 5:30 and plan on having 1 glass of wine. I’ve got to get a better handle on taking my bumps, picking myself up, and not throwing in the towel completely. I think that is a big part of why I’m back here, losing 45 pounds again. I’m working on seeing the positive along with the negative.

Week 1 Results

4.8 pounds. Not too shabby! Just .2 more and I would have gotten my first 5 pounds star. I’m off to a good start. I have an extremely busy next few days that include a funeral and a couple of birthday parties/cookouts. I hope this decent loss will keep me motivated enough throughout the weekend to continue with my good eating habits. The weather isn’t supposed to be very good so exercising won’t be very likely (like it would be anyway…).

The Back Story Part I

I wasn’t heavy as a child so I can't say I've had a problem with my weight all of my life. As a matter of fact, I was incredibly scrawny. I know I’ve said before that I’m an all-or-nothing kind of person. I took it to the extreme my sophomore year of high school. I wasn’t over weight by any stretch of the imagination. I played three sports per year and ate like a normal teenager; probably didn’t make all of the best nutritional choices, but I had a youthful metabolism on my side. That was the year I lost my beloved grandmother. This woman had practically raised me since my mom was a teenage mother. She was a very central part of my life. She died at the age of 55 of a massive heart attack that came out of the blue. I was devastated to say the least. I didn’t know how to handle my grief and I felt like everything in my life was spinning out of control. At that age, the only thing I had full power over, was what I put into my mouth. I began to restrict my food intake drastically… and it felt good. I actually grew to like the feeling of being hungry and the reassurance of my stomach growling. As I started dropping weight, I continued to limit my intake more and more. Eventually, I was down to a swig of orange juice and half a saltine in the morning, some grapefruit juice at lunch, and not very much else throughout the day. I had practice every night after school and this helped with avoiding the dinner table at home and keeping the full truth about my eating habits away from my parents. My stepfather had always been a dictator when it came to food (and pretty much everything else as well). He filled your plate and you didn’t get up from the table until you finished. It didn’t matter if you were full or not; you did not waste food…the end, no compromise. When my weight loss started to become an issue at home, as it eventually had to be since it was dropping it so quickly, his solution was to force me to eat. Not a very bright move; he thought once he started making me eat, I’d just start eating regularly again. This is when I began purging. I wasn’t a binger, I didn’t like the feeling of being full, and I had to take the control back that I felt I’d lost at the hands of my stepfather. I think eventually he thought that he’d “cured” me and started leaving me alone a little bit more. I was able to go back to my usual restrictive eating, which pretty much put an end to purging.

I also started exercising excessively. On top of the sports practices, I would run for long periods of time with unnecessary amounts of clothes on. My parents worked 11pm-7am so I would wait for them to leave for work and take off for a run. This also led, of course, to a massive amount of sleep deprivation. The combination was making me a pretty sick and unhealthy young lady.

What strikes me as most unsettling is how little the adults in my life took notice, or should I say, took action about my eating disorder. There was another girl in my class who had to be hospitalized for an eating disorder during the time that I was dealing with my anorexia. Eventually, the principal of my high school called me into his office. Our school was a very small, rural high school and the principal was like a father-figure to the majority of the students. He questioned me very gently about my weight loss, and if I was having some trouble that I wanted to talk about. I don’t remember what I said, but that was the first time somebody directly called me on my behavior. It’s downright scary how insane eating disorder behavior was ignored in my case. I was a chronic weigh-er. I would to go the nurse's office when I got into school and weigh myself. Then I’d weigh myself again just before lunch. Then again after I had drank my lunch (grapefruit juice), and again at the end of the day. I was in that office four times a day on that scale and she NEVER confronted me… never raised the alarm to anybody. In hindsight it’s unfathomable how this could have happened.

Months later I went to the local Planned Parenthood to get put on the pill. The testing that they did showed that my electrolytes were extremely messed up and I weighed in at 105 pounds full-clothed (I still wore my old clothes so they were huge and hung off of me) and I was 5'6". The nurse practitioner confronted me and I broken down, telling her all about my issues with eating. She told me how badly I was jeopardizing my health and about the damage that I’d already done to my body. She also refused to put me on the pill until I had dealt with my issues and gained some weight. I’m not sure how, but shortly after that appointment I began to eat a little more. I started out really slowly, going from a half of a saltine to a whole one at breakfast. I missed the empty feeling, but I had to get my health back. I had gotten to a place where I could barely make a sufficient pass on the basketball court. I was weak and sick, and I was ready to get better.

I fully realize that mine was a very mild case of anorexia and there are millions of gals out there who are literally dying from eating disorders. Obviously, I hit the other end of the spectrum eventually. I’ll post about that at a later date. I think that most people who know me now are unaware of the trouble I had with anorexia. Gosh, I haven’t really thought about this is a long time.

Gnu Fiber Bar Review

I love the Hungry Girl website. I have found endless healthy foods options and recipes that are lower-fat/calorie alternatives to some of the less-figure friendly versions from the folks at HG. It was there that I read about Gnu Fiber Bars which contain half of a day’s fiber (12 g) in each bar, are all natural and are only 2 pts. They come in 5 flavors; Cinnamon Raisin, Chocolate Brownie, Peanut Butter, Banana Walnut, and Orange Cranberry. On the Gnu website you can put in your zip code and find out where they are sold in your vicinity. The only place that was listed is the Natural Foods Co-op. I made a special trip to the Co-op specifically for these bars and scrounged around for a while to find. Finally I gave up looking for the elusive Gnu bars and asked someone if they do, indeed, have them. They do not.

There were so many Gnu Lovers leaving positive comments on their website, that I was really eager to try them. You can, of course, order them directly from their website; they even have a “Joy of Fiber Program” where you can select a 15 or 30 bar/month program where they are automatically mailed to you. They also offer a Flavor Sampler where you get one of each flavor (5) for $9.99 and the shipping is included; this is the option I chose. They came within a few days and the company was a pleasure to order from and deal with. I’ve since tried all 5 varieties and this is what I think:

Orange Cranberry: You can definitely taste the “all natural” in all of these bars. They were filling, of course, with 12 grams of fiber but I actually found this flavor a little bit bitter. They use fruit juice to sweeten all of their bars but, in my opinion, they could use a bit more in this one.



Peanut Butter: These are nice and chewy. They have a very mild peanut butter flavor.



Banana Walnut: Again, the flavors are very subtle. I didn’t notice any walnuts or walnut flavor at all. I thought that this one was a bit dry.



Chocolate Brownie: These have a strong cocoa flavor to them although it‘s not unpleasant. They look moist but were actually a little on the dry side. They have itty bitty chocolate chips here and there which were tasty. This would surely take care of a chocolate craving.



Cinnamon Raisin: This was the last one I tried and it was also my favorite. Both moist and flavorful, it had just the right amount of cinnamon with a sprinkling of raisins.



I don’t believe I’ll be joining the Gnu Joy of Fiber Club anytime soon. There are a few other natural bars that I’ve been eating for a while that I enjoyed much more than these. At $2/bar, I definitely didn’t feel there was enough bang-for-the-buck. The huge amount of fiber is a great selling point; however I have a pretty healthy diet in general and eat high fiber foods whenever I can so I get enough fiber every day through my normal eating regime.

No Good Ever Comes Out of Buying Halloween Candy A Month Early

Halloween is a double-edged sword for me. I both love it and hate it. I love it because it’s great fun living in a small town and trick-or-treating with my family and a group of girlfriend‘s families. I hate it because I have enormous difficulty not consuming vast quantities of those little candy bars. I was at a relatives this weekend and there, sitting on the kitchen table, were 3 opened bags of Halloween candy bars. She had them all…Snickers, Milky Ways, Babe Ruth’s, Twix, and the ultimate evil… Butterfingers. I could feel my willpower slipping away. I am a serious chocoholic but I’m usually able to restrict myself to small portions of dark chocolate, sugar free pudding, or protein/fiber bars while I’m doing WW. I decided to let myself have a couple and checked out the back of the bags to figure out which ones would do the least amount of damage. Apparently my favorite, Butterfingers, are so delectable because they’re chock-full of extremely fattening deliciousness. I ended up with a Twix, a Milky Way and a Snickers. Because these were just bite-size (bite-size for who?) and not snack-size (which are actually closer to bite-size ), they calculated to 1 point each. I would have loved to just dive in, but I knew that the regret and disappointment I’d feel after definitely wasn’t worth it.

Well, I made it through my first weekend since being back on WW. All-in-all I did pretty well. I even attended a baby shower today but luckily, the mother-to-be is a strict vegetarian and they decided to serve soups along with cheese and bread; there wasn’t a fatty-dip or fudgy brownie in sight. I went for the vegetable soup instead of the creamier soups (although I did have a tiny taste of the potato leek and it was exquisite) and only had a nibble of cheese. I was even able to turn down the pumpkin cheesecake when a piece was actually placed in my hands. I opted instead to have a cup of coffee. That, in itself, was a super-human feat for me; I love me some cheesecake!

Now if I can just get off my ass and start exercising.

Blondes Really Do Have More Fun

Sometime in April I was feeling particularly unsettled. I was in definite need of a change and, since I wasn’t doing such a great job with changing my weight, I decided to change my hair. My natural color is somewhere around a medium to dark blonde. I usually have some subtle highlights put into it and I’ve never really considered myself anything other than a blonde. I wanted a big modification; I wanted to go dark. Not just brown… I’m talking black… Elvira black. My stylist has been my good friend for about 23 years; we went to high school together and she’s done my hair since she was in cosmetology school in the early ‘90s. Oh, by the way… she has naturally black, gorgeous, thick hair. Our initial go at it produced a really dark brown and we decided to cut several inches off of at the same time. I was being told that I had beautiful green eyes by about everybody who saw me like they were just noticing them for the first time. I guess the darker color really brought them out. I liked it, I liked it a lot… but I didn’t feel it was dark enough. At our next coloring session a few months later, I talked her into going as dark as she could. That was the color you see in my profile picture. I loved it! The reviews were mixed. My husband, though he never came out and said he didn’t like it, would always point out how good I looked in pictures where my hair wasn’t dark. My daughters didn’t mince words and told me flat out that they didn’t care for it and my 5 year old simply said, “Mom, you have to go blonde again!” The problem with coloring your hair dark, is that it doesn’t seem to stay that color for very long. Red starts showing through and it quickly became a color I hadn’t wanted. On top of that, I didn’t feel like myself. I’m not sure how to explain it, but when I looked in the mirror, I didn’t see myself. Maybe that was what I was looking for when I originally decided to pull this stunt… but I think it kind of backfired. I know there were several other things at play but let’s just say that the biggest jump in my weight gain came between April and now. Very telling.

Now that I want to “find” myself again, I decided I have to go back to my natural color (or somewhere close to it anyway). Unfortunately, going dark is a lot easier than returning to light. I wasn’t blessed with thick lustrous hair. My hair is thin, super-fine, and delicate… not a good combination when the only way to go back to blonde in one shebang is to strip my hair of the color. That was not an option for me according to my hairdresser. Instead, we put loads of highlights in it and then another, semi-permanent honey color on top to tone them down against the dark. It’s going to be a gradual process, getting back to blonde, but I sincerely believe I need to be as close to the “old” me as possible right now.

Oh, How the Mighty Have Fallen

Losing 130 pounds was no small feat, I will admit. Sometimes I still can’t believe I did it. I can barely fathom having ever weighed that much. It truly seems like a lifetime ago. I know that there were many, many people who were proud of my accomplishment, who marveled at my steadfast determination to lose the weight, and who looked up to me as the ultimate success story. Though it felt great to have such positive attention, it was also a humongous amount of pressure. I can’t count the number of people who came up to me to tell me that I’d inspired them to join WW or to take some other action to lose their extra weight. Even as I was thanking them for their compliments, for their words of admiration and sometimes even astonishment at the change in me, I could feel the pressure to maintain the loss weighing heavily on my shoulders. I would never suggest that someone shouldn’t acknowledge a friend’s weigh loss; it really does feel good and it’s fun for your accomplishments to be recognized. I’m just saying that, for me, along with this incredibly good feeling came something else.

Since gaining some of the weight back, I’ve found myself not wanting to be as active and social as I had been when I was thinner. I try to avoid running into all of those people who had once admired me and let me know how impressed they were with my achievement. I feel like I’d not only let myself down, but I’d let down pretty much everybody who had taken the initiative to let me know proud they were of me. I know what they’re thinking; I will admit that I’ve thought the same thing of people I’ve known who have lost and regained weight. I also think that most people believe that those who lose a major amount of weight will not be able to keep it off long-term. I guess that can be expected when the fact is that many people who lose weight gain it back… and then some quite often.

I think that is one of the things that I miss the most. Being out in a social situation and feeling comfortable, even confident. I see people checking me out; they take note of the extra pounds, the ill-fitting clothes, and the uncomfortable way I carry myself. I catch myself sucking in my stomach, making sure I have a cardigan on to close around my waist, and even hunching over so that my shirts don’t appear as tight against my muffin top. It’s not a fun way to live and I’m really tired of feeling this way. I’m being honest when I say that it’s not the positive attention that I’m looking for, just a lack of the negative attention.

I believe I’ve learned my lesson. I’m going to try very hard to remember how I’m feeling right now. If I ever begin to slip again, I will remind myself where I am now, and how terrible I feel about myself. Thankfully I’ll have this blog to reference.

WW Vanilla Chai Smoothie Review

I’d promised a review of the WW Vanilla Chai smoothie that I wrote about yesterday. The packet itself is 1 pt. and they suggest mixing it with a cup of water which would make the entire thing 1 pt. I thought that I’d rather add another point or two on there and have a better, creamier, more milkshake-like smoothie. I was originally going to use a cup of skim milk which would add 2 pts. but I then decided to try it with light vanilla soy milk instead. A cup of the light soy milk is 1 pt. and since it was already a vanilla chai flavor, I thought that it would compliment it nicely. I mixed it together in the blender and wasn’t too excited with the consistency; it seemed like a cup of milk instead of the treat that I was anticipating. I decided to throw in a few ice cubes and let that sucker spin for a good 30 seconds on high. Holy cow, that did the trick. What I ended up with was a huge tall glass of the yummiest smoothie. It was just delicious and very substantial. I chugged that sucker right down; maybe a little too fast. It filled me up and put a smile on my face. I’d definitely give this 3.5 stars out of a possible 5.

It's All Greek To Me

I’m in love. Madly, deeply, obsessively, utterly in love… and it’s not with my husband. Oh, he knows I’ve got a “thing” going on; I haven’t been able to hide it very well. He just thinks it’s a phase; that it’s just a little infatuation and it’ll probably blow over in no time. I can’t stop thinking about it. I want it morning, noon and night… and then some in between as well. As a matter of fact, I had some this morning and am already thinking I need more; it’s never enough. No, I’m not talking about some hot, young stud… I’m talking about Greek yogurt. Fage 0% to be exact. With a drizzle of honey. I eat it every morning for breakfast and actually have felt something akin to panic when I run out. It’s not always easy to find in my area and I feel it’s a bit on the pricey side, but I can’t help myself. I think my local grocery market knows about this “problem” I have and takes it upon themselves to ration me… seriously. The last several times I’ve gone to buy it there are only two cartons of it sitting on the shelf. Two… each time. Like they’re dispensing it at a reasonable rate for my own good or something. You wouldn’t believe how fast I put those bad boys in my cart. This week there was a woman standing right in front of that shelf eye-balling the display. In my head I’m chanting “not the Fage, not the Fage!!!”. I may have added a couple not-so-nice words in there to and I feel a little bad about that. Luckily she reached for the soy yogurt that is right above it. I’m not sure what would have happened if she’s taken those last two containers of my yogurt. My heart was racing and I can honestly say that I would have had to control myself with every fiber of my being not to forcibly take that yogurt form her. Let’s hope I never have to find out.

Now I know that Greek yogurt isn’t for everybody. I’ve made several people try it and have heard things ranging from “it tastes like baby puke” to “Oh my God, I’d rather starve than eat that shit”. I’ll have to admit, I didn’t fall head-over-heels the first time I tried it either. As a matter of fact, it made me a bit queasy. I tried the Fage Total which is the full fat version and it came with its own honey. I’m not sure why, but even after having a less-than-stellar initial experience with it, I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I decided to try the 2% because they didn’t carry the 0% yet at my store. I used my own honey this time and added a few pistachios on top. That’s when the scorching hot romance began, and it hasn’t cooled since. Fortunately, it’s exceptionally good for you. The Fage 0% has only 120 calories, 0 fat (2 pts) and 20g of protein per cup! 20 grams of protein! Those are amazing stats. And a cup of this stuff is a lot people… very filling. I drizzle 1 tb. of honey (1 pt) on top and it’s like Heaven’s doors opening for my taste buds. I’ve actually caught myself moaning while I’m eating this stuff. I kid you not. It’s the best 3 points I’ve ever consumed; and that’s saying a lot. I’ve since met several die-hard Greek yogurt fans and I’m relieved to say that I’m not the only one with such fanatical love for this stuff. There truly should be some type of support group for Greek yogurt addicts. GYA (Greek Yogurt Anonymous)… “Hi, my name is Nik and I’m addicted to Greek yogurt”. I can say I’ve never had such an unhealthy fixation on such a healthy food… well, except for those few mind-blowing months with the Spicy California rolls but that’s a story for another time.

(I'd give this way more than 5 stars but, to keep things consistent for future reviews, I'll stick to the 1-5 star scale. It's so worth 8 though... at least.)

Second Time's A Charm

Well, today is the day. The new round of WW meetings is starting at work and they begin at noon. I have another commitment that won’t allow me to be for the beginning but my leader said that she’s usually there until 1:30 and she’ll leave the scales out since she knows I’ll be coming later. I’m excited and nervous… but mostly excited. I stepped on the scale this morning for the first time in a while. I didn’t want to be too freaked out if the number was something that I wasn’t expecting… I think I’d probably have a small break down right there during the weigh-in. Luckily, it was the same as I’d seen weeks back, so apparently I’ve at least maintained and not gained more. This is a good thing. I know I’ll have a good 45 pounds or so to lose before hitting goal again but I’m up for it. I’ll update when I get back from the meeting this afternoon. Wish me luck.
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Okay, so I ended up getting to the meeting at 12:40 and weighed-in and heard the entire meeting, which was nice. To be more exact, I have 48 pounds to lose to get to goal according to the WW scales. They’re 1.5 pounds heavier than mine but I was naked and hadn’t eaten anything so I do believe that’s about right. Right now I get 26 points, at least until I lose 3 pounds, and 35 flex points a week. I eat those suckers too. Every single one of them. I always did when I originally lost the weight and I have no doubt I will this time as well. It worked for me because I didn’t have to starve myself to maintain once I got to my goal. I really believe that if you eat very little to lose the weight, you will have to eat even less to maintain the weight loss and I didn’t want to have to do that. It may have taken me a little longer to lose it by eating all of the flex, but I still think 90 pounds in a year isn’t too shabby. I bought a box of the new Chai flavored smoothie mixes from WW to try; my friend said they were terrific and tasted like cake batter. Yum. They’d better be good for $7.50! I’ll report back on that.

Here We Go Again

Actually written on Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Tomorrow it starts… again. Thankfully, I’ve caught it before it’s gotten too far out of hand. Granted, 45 pounds isn’t anything to sneeze at, but it’s much better than the 130 pounds I had to lose before! I surely didn’t want to be one of those people who got to their goal (well, actually below it) and then gained it all back and then some. In 2004 I started doing WW online and lost about 30 pounds. At that point, I changed jobs and WW meetings were offered at work so I joined. I went on to lose another 90 pounds in just over a year. I’ll tell ya… I was the best little Weight Watcher-er. I’m an “all or nothing” kind of person and I put my all into it and pretty much didn’t waiver until I’d reached my goal. I went on to maintain or dip below my goal for the next year or so without much of a problem. I was exercising regularly and eating the plan without actually keeping track of points. I’d been doing it so long that I pretty much knew what everything was worth and when I was “done” for the day in my head. Then, a few things happened in 2007:

1. I started addressing some issues in my life that were really stressing me out.
2. I had a breast reduction surgery that summer that made me discontinue the running I’d been doing for a while (about 4 miles 3-4 times a week).
3. Unknowingly, my thyroid was under functioning and my endocrinologist didn’t bother to phone me that I needed to increase my dose of Synthroid.

I think the combination of stress and depression and under-active thyroid really took its toll. My thyroid was plummeting throughout the year but I just thought I was dealing with things that were difficult and it was making me depressed. Plus, I’d given up on my exercise program and just could never get motivated to re-start it. When it was all said and done, the damage came in the form of an extra 45 pounds. I feel terrible, I think I look terrible, I miss the old, thinner, more confident me. I want her back. I will get her back. Tomorrow is the first day back on plan and I am so looking forward to it. I need the accountability of meetings and to start journaling everything I eat, each mile I walk, and every pound I lose. You should see my charts… they are amazing and plentiful. I had one for every aspect of weight loss and those tools really kept me going and helped me along my path. I’m breaking them out again. I can’t believe I let myself get here… but not for long!