I am just three weeks out from my marathon, which also means I'm three weeks IN to my challenges. I had created two six-week challenges for myself: 1) Give up peanut butter, and 2) Try the Weight Watchers PointsPlus program. Since today marks the halfway point, I figured I'd write a little progress report.
First, the peanut butter. This is probably the longest I've ever gone without peanut butter! I knew I was hooked on it, but I didn't realize just how many calories I was getting each day from peanut butter until I stopped eating it. I thought giving it up would be awful (seriously, I thought I would die), but it hasn't been too bad.
Some might stay I have a small obsession ;)
I've learned that peanut butter is my biggest binge trigger there is. More-so than ice cream or cookies or candy. Every time that I binge, the foods I choose contain peanut butter in some form. I am excited to say that I have been 100% binge-free for three weeks now. It's been a long time since I've gone that amount of time without a binge.
Before this challenge, my snacks would almost always be:
Toast with peanut butter
Carrots with peanut butter
A spoonful (or two or eight) of peanut butter
Nutella with peanut butter (yes, you read that right)
A granola bar spread with peanut butter
Peanut butter + honey + dry oats (kind of like a cookie dough)
Frozen yogurt or ice cream topped with peanut butter
A brownie with peanut butter
For the past three weeks, my snacks have been:
Fruit (mostly grapes)
Broccoli with ranch dip
Fiber One bar
Almonds
Popcorn
I certainly don't think there is anything "wrong" with peanut butter, but I was obviously eating a lot of junk WITH the peanut butter before. So my snacks have been much healthier. I do miss peanut butter sometimes, but it's usually in a binge-y kind of way, which is no good. Giving it up has really helped me with my second challenge...
Following the Weight Watchers' PointsPlus program for six weeks.
It's been three weeks, and I have logged my food and counted my PointsPlus (PP) every single day. I decided from the very beginning to give the program a fair chance, and not think about my past experiences with WW.
I had the materials at home to follow the program without actually joining, but to give it a 100% fair chance, I figured I should at least join the online program--which is what I did. I forget the exact cost, but I think it was about $60 for 3 months. ($20/month is a LOT to me--it was hard to fork over that money).
Ironically, it's the money that has made me stick to the plan! I honestly would have quit on Day 1 if I hadn't paid the money. Every time I had a thought of my usual, "Oh, I'll just start over tomorrow", I reminded myself that I just paid them a lot of money, and I better get my money's worth out of it in the long run.
I've had a few obstacles, but I took Pete's advice and made a plan ahead of time for how to handle them. First, was dinner at my mom's house; there was Jerry's 90-Day dinner for work; going out to lunch with Renee and Jessica; and a couple of date nights with Jerry. I stayed on plan for all of those, which is a big achievement.
I'm really surprised that this time around on WW, I actually like the plan. The free fruit thing has me sold ;) Whenever I am feeling ultra snacky, and feel like I'm going to lose control, I'll usually have fruit (almost always grapes). I haven't been "abusing" the free fruit, either--I typically will have 3-4 servings per day. Grapes have really been my savior over the last three weeks!
Since my desserts almost always include peanut butter in some form, I haven't really been eating sweets. At night, for my daily "treat", I've been having a glass of wine and a single Dove Promise (dark chocolate).
Typically, my food intake is breakfast, then lunch, then snack, then dinner, and then a bedtime treat/snack. I'm allotted 26 PointsPlus per day, as well as 49 "weekly PP", and "activity PP" (for exercising, I can earn extra PP to use on food). I've been eating all of my daily's, all of my weeklies, and almost all of my activity PP for each of the last three weeks. Here is what a typical day might look like:
I log my weight on Sundays, and today's weight was 146. My technical starting weight was actually 156 (!!)--BUT, I don't consider that accurate, because I had binged the day before, which always makes me gain 4-5 pounds of water weight. So my actual starting weight was probably more like 152 (yes, that's way above my panic weight). That would be a total loss of six pounds, or an average of two pounds a week. I'm very happy with that!
The best part is just that I feel like I'm in control again. All summer long, I felt like I was just one binge away from gaining back 100+ pounds. I was stress-bingeing too often, and it scared me. But like I've said before, the summertime is very stressful for me, and I always do best at weight loss/maintenance in the fall and winter months.
My jeans were extremely tight, and a lot of them were unwearable--and now, after just three weeks on plan, my jeans are getting comfortable again (and some of the unwearables are now wearable).
So as of today, I'm very happy with the way things are going. I am going to continue with my challenges until the marathon (and possibly beyond?? I would be thrilled to get back down to my comfortable weight of 133). As far as counting calories vs. counting PointsPlus, I think either one is fine and both work. I got sick of counting calories, and decided to give WW another try. I like that it's easier to tally up PP in my head, and I love the free fruit. I'll write more about what I think about the plan after the six-week mark, but for now, I like it enough to keep going :)
Some might stay I have a small obsession ;)
I've learned that peanut butter is my biggest binge trigger there is. More-so than ice cream or cookies or candy. Every time that I binge, the foods I choose contain peanut butter in some form. I am excited to say that I have been 100% binge-free for three weeks now. It's been a long time since I've gone that amount of time without a binge.
Before this challenge, my snacks would almost always be:
Toast with peanut butter
Carrots with peanut butter
A spoonful (or two or eight) of peanut butter
Nutella with peanut butter (yes, you read that right)
A granola bar spread with peanut butter
Peanut butter + honey + dry oats (kind of like a cookie dough)
Frozen yogurt or ice cream topped with peanut butter
A brownie with peanut butter
For the past three weeks, my snacks have been:
Fruit (mostly grapes)
Broccoli with ranch dip
Fiber One bar
Almonds
Popcorn
I certainly don't think there is anything "wrong" with peanut butter, but I was obviously eating a lot of junk WITH the peanut butter before. So my snacks have been much healthier. I do miss peanut butter sometimes, but it's usually in a binge-y kind of way, which is no good. Giving it up has really helped me with my second challenge...
Following the Weight Watchers' PointsPlus program for six weeks.
It's been three weeks, and I have logged my food and counted my PointsPlus (PP) every single day. I decided from the very beginning to give the program a fair chance, and not think about my past experiences with WW.
I had the materials at home to follow the program without actually joining, but to give it a 100% fair chance, I figured I should at least join the online program--which is what I did. I forget the exact cost, but I think it was about $60 for 3 months. ($20/month is a LOT to me--it was hard to fork over that money).
Ironically, it's the money that has made me stick to the plan! I honestly would have quit on Day 1 if I hadn't paid the money. Every time I had a thought of my usual, "Oh, I'll just start over tomorrow", I reminded myself that I just paid them a lot of money, and I better get my money's worth out of it in the long run.
I've had a few obstacles, but I took Pete's advice and made a plan ahead of time for how to handle them. First, was dinner at my mom's house; there was Jerry's 90-Day dinner for work; going out to lunch with Renee and Jessica; and a couple of date nights with Jerry. I stayed on plan for all of those, which is a big achievement.
I'm really surprised that this time around on WW, I actually like the plan. The free fruit thing has me sold ;) Whenever I am feeling ultra snacky, and feel like I'm going to lose control, I'll usually have fruit (almost always grapes). I haven't been "abusing" the free fruit, either--I typically will have 3-4 servings per day. Grapes have really been my savior over the last three weeks!
Since my desserts almost always include peanut butter in some form, I haven't really been eating sweets. At night, for my daily "treat", I've been having a glass of wine and a single Dove Promise (dark chocolate).
Typically, my food intake is breakfast, then lunch, then snack, then dinner, and then a bedtime treat/snack. I'm allotted 26 PointsPlus per day, as well as 49 "weekly PP", and "activity PP" (for exercising, I can earn extra PP to use on food). I've been eating all of my daily's, all of my weeklies, and almost all of my activity PP for each of the last three weeks. Here is what a typical day might look like:
I log my weight on Sundays, and today's weight was 146. My technical starting weight was actually 156 (!!)--BUT, I don't consider that accurate, because I had binged the day before, which always makes me gain 4-5 pounds of water weight. So my actual starting weight was probably more like 152 (yes, that's way above my panic weight). That would be a total loss of six pounds, or an average of two pounds a week. I'm very happy with that!
The best part is just that I feel like I'm in control again. All summer long, I felt like I was just one binge away from gaining back 100+ pounds. I was stress-bingeing too often, and it scared me. But like I've said before, the summertime is very stressful for me, and I always do best at weight loss/maintenance in the fall and winter months.
My jeans were extremely tight, and a lot of them were unwearable--and now, after just three weeks on plan, my jeans are getting comfortable again (and some of the unwearables are now wearable).
So as of today, I'm very happy with the way things are going. I am going to continue with my challenges until the marathon (and possibly beyond?? I would be thrilled to get back down to my comfortable weight of 133). As far as counting calories vs. counting PointsPlus, I think either one is fine and both work. I got sick of counting calories, and decided to give WW another try. I like that it's easier to tally up PP in my head, and I love the free fruit. I'll write more about what I think about the plan after the six-week mark, but for now, I like it enough to keep going :)