Calories vs. Weight Watchers SmartPoints comparison

Last week, I weighed in at Weight Watchers and got the materials for their new Beyond the Scale: SmartPoints plan. It definitely did not sound like the right plan for me (especially when I saw that my beloved dried cherries were 8 "SmartPoints" for a quarter cup!), but I was curious as to how many SmartPoints I'd eaten each day this week. I used the new Weight Watchers app to calculate my SmartPoints at the end of each day, just out of curiosity.

For reference, if I was doing Weight Watchers, my daily target to MAINTAIN my weight would be 36 SmartPoints per day, plus 28 SmartPoints per week. If I was trying to LOSE weight, my daily target would be just 30 SmartPoints per day, plus 28 SmartPoints per week.

I did not calculate the SmartPoints each day--I only did it after the week was over. I'd eaten the foods I normally eat, and I counted calories like usual. Note that this was a crazy week with Jerry's ER visits and all that, so my calories were rather low on a few days; but even on my low days, I was shocked by the high number of SmartPoints I'd eaten.)

Here is the result:

W: 1,681 calories; 65 SmartPoints
T: 1,239 calories; 51 SmartPoints
F: 1,972 calories; 63 SmartPoints
S: 1,442 calories; 57 SmartPoints
S: 1,354 calories; 58 SmartPoints
M: 1,240 calories; 44 SmartPoints
T: 1,578 calories; 65 SmartPoints

Totals for the week: 10,506 calories; 403 SmartPoints
Averages each day: 1,501 calories; 58 SmartPoints
(Weight Watchers recommends 30 SmartPoints per day for someone my size to lose weight)

That means, in this week, I would have gone OVER by 123 SmartPoints in maintenance, and 165 SmartPoints if I was trying to lose weight!! (Yet, I lost 2 pounds this week.) Shocking, right?

(Important Note: Since I count calories, and I'm not actively following the SmartPoints plan, I wasn't trying to get the most out of my SmartPoints. If I was trying to follow the SmartPoints plan, I could have made different choices about what to eat--trying to fill up on fruits and vegetables, and eat less sugar and/or processed foods, so the SmartPoints counts would probably have been lower. This is NOT a review of the new plan, nor was it an experiment as a week on Weight Watchers' new plan; all I did was calculate how many SmartPoints I'd eaten for a week, out of curiosity.)

Anyway, here is a sample day, based on things that I would typically eat:

Breakfast: Larabar (which is just dates, nuts, and dried fruit) with 8 g. peanut butter; tea with 1/2 tsp. sugar and 1-1/3 Tbsp. half and half (13 SmartPoints; 301 calories)
Lunch: Panera lunch date with a friend- 1/2 chicken caesar salad, 1 cup tomato soup, piece of baguette, unsweetened iced tea (25 SmartPoints; 680 calories)
Dinner: Homemade roasted red pepper and turkey sausage pasta (11 SmartPoints; 394 calories)
Snack/treat: homemade fudge (9 SmartPoints; 198 calories)

Total: 58 SmartPoints; 1,573 calories

This is a very typical day for me--not super healthy, not super junky, just average. I'm not going to bash the new Weight Watchers program, because I understand what Weight Watchers is going for--when "junk" foods are super high in SmartPoints, people will be more likely to make healthier choices. That's a good thing!

However... I find that the opposite happens with me. The more restrictions I have, the less likely I am to stick with the program. I get frustrated while trying to find a compromise between foods I enjoy and that fit in with the plan.

My Thoughts on the New SmartPoints Plan...

Weight Watchers used to be pretty simple when calculating Points values: there was a formula that used calories, fat, and fiber. That was the plan that I used to lose most of the 125 pounds I lost in 2009-2010.

Then they came out with a new plan, the slightly more complicated PointsPlus system, that then used carbs, fat, fiber, and protein to calculate PointsPlus.

Now, they are using calories, saturated fat, protein, carbs, fiber, and sugar to calculate SmartPoints. Instead of getting simpler, which is what you want when trying to get people interested, the plan is getting much more complicated and overwhelming.

As a newcomer to Weight Watchers way back in the day, the biggest appeal to me was that I didn't have to eat a super healthy diet to lose weight.

If I was able to stick with a very healthy diet (lots of fruits and veggies, very little sugar, etc), then I never would have been 253 pounds!

I'd tried making healthy choices God-only-knows-how-many times, but I was never able to stick with it. When doing Weight Watchers (the Winning Points plan), I was able to eat the foods that I wanted (in smaller portions) and still lose 125 pounds.

In August 2009, at 253 pounds and living off of pizza, Oreos, ice cream, and Dr. Pepper, I was looking for a weight loss plan that I could stick with. I didn't want to go from pizza and ice cream to salads and grilled fish overnight. I was willing to compromise, though, and Weight Watchers (as the program was back then) allowed me to do that. I could still eat pizza, just not half a pie. I could eat Oreos, just not a whole row in one sitting. And I started adding fruits and vegetables because they were low in Points, so I could eat more food.

With this new plan, it would be very hard to fit in even a small treat. I typically eat three meals a day, plus one treat in the evenings (a piece of fudge, for example, like I mentioned yesterday).

That 198-calorie piece of fudge was 9 SmartPoints--exactly one fourth of the SmartPoints WW would allow me to have per day on maintenance! 

And for a special occasion, like a birthday? A piece of carrot cake (my favorite) is 28 SmartPoints, which would use ALL of the 28 weekly SP allotment.

Again, I understand what Weight Watchers is trying to do in getting people to eat healthier--I just know that, for me, the new plan would make me feel like I was on another complicated diet and I would eventually binge on all the foods I couldn't fit into my daily allotment.

On one hand, Weight Watchers is responding to the trend in pushing more protein and less carbs; but on the other hand, it doesn't even feel like Weight Watchers any more.

I think the new SmartPoints plan is great for people who already eat a pretty healthy diet, and are just having a hard time losing weight. I also think it would be good for someone who has health issues, and has to cut back on sugar and/or saturated fat.

If you spend most of your SmartPoints allowance on lean protein, fruits, and vegetables, you could probably still fit in a small treat now and then. For people (like me) who are otherwise healthy and enjoy carbs, daily dessert, or eat processed foods, and who want to keep things as simple as possible, calorie counting seems to be a better fit.

I'm not suggesting that people don't give the new program a chance. When WW first rolled out the PointsPlus plan, I really didn't like it! That's why I used the old 1-2-3 Success Points plan to start with. Eventually, when I was ready, I really embraced the new plan and it worked out well for me.

As of now, I recently lost almost 30 pounds by calorie counting, and I'm 134 days binge-free (woo hoo!)... so I don't want to mess with that by trying something new, even as an experiment.

My recent weight loss from calorie counting

My friend Andrea did great her first week on the new SmartPoints plan, losing 9 pounds(!)--but she said that she wouldn't be able to do that plan for maintenance. She's hoping to get back to goal and then find a different maintenance plan that isn't so restrictive. My sister switched from Weight Watchers to calorie counting this week, because of the new SmartPoints plan, and she lost 2.8 pounds--which she was thrilled with.

There have been tons of mixed reviews of the new WW plan on social media, and it's been an interesting read! If nothing else, it seems to have caused a heated discussion among Weight Watchers members ;)

I know I'm always saying this, but everybody is different, so we all just need to find what works for us. Maybe it's Weight Watchers, maybe it's calorie counting, maybe it's macro counting, maybe it's intuitive eating, maybe it's something else. It's interesting to see all the different ways to accomplish one common goal!

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So, today was my Wednesday Weigh-in, and I can't say I was disappointed when I stepped on the scale this morning ;)

I was at 130.5, which is down 2 whole pounds from last week; and 2.5 pounds below my goal weight. I wasn't actively trying to lose weight this week, but I had a lot going on with Jerry being in the hospital 4 out of 5 days in a row. My average calorie intake was 1,501, which is on the low side for maintenance; but, considering the circumstances, it makes sense. (Next week, it'll probably be back up, and I'm fine with that).

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Treadmill Tuesday

It felt so good to get caught up on stuff yesterday! I did a ton of laundry, went grocery shopping, responded to email, and cleaned up around the house. It's been really nice to spend some time with Jerry, too--after the kids left for school, we curled up on the couch with the electric blanket and watched Bad Santa. With all that was going on with Jerry, it was nice to laugh and just relax. I wasn't even thinking about Christmas all this past week; and now Christmas is just 10 days away!

The kids spent a lot of time with my parents over the last week, since Jerry and I were at the hospital, so we wanted to do something fun (yet low-key) with them last night. We decided to make fudge (I rarely bake or make sweets, because it's hard not to go overboard and eat the whole batch; but the kids love baking, so they get very excited when we do it). We made Rocky Road Fudge (with walnuts and marshmallows) and it was delicious!

After we each ate a piece of fudge, we all went for a one-mile walk around the neighborhood in the dark. The kids thought walking the dark was a lot of fun ;)

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This morning, I woke up with ZERO energy. I have no idea why I was feeling so tired, but I really wanted to crawl back into bed and sleep some more. Usually, I'm wide awake in the mornings. I had intervals on the schedule, and I was really considering rescheduling them because of my lack of energy. Interval workouts are tough! But I don't want to get behind on my 10K training, so I got dressed to run and went out to the garage to run on the treadmill.

We had another warm morning--I think it was about 45 degrees. I actually wore capris and a tank! I am loving this odd December weather. Last week, I did my intervals outside; two weeks ago, I did 5 x 400's at 8.2 mph and 1% incline on the treadmill. Today, my plan was to do 6 x 400 at 8.3 mph and 1% incline.

First, I jogged for half a mile, and then I set the speed to 8.3 mph. Once I started running hard, I felt my energy level rise a bit, thank goodness. The first two intervals went by just fine. On the third, I was starting to get tired, and I wished I had more rest between intervals (one minute is ideal for me to take a break and recover, but not so long to where my heart rate goes back to the resting rate). I was really tempted to pause my Garmin and take longer during the recoveries, but I had done five intervals last week, so I knew I could keep going.

The last interval was extremely difficult to get through. I felt like I might not make it, and I would have to either drop the pace or quit. But, I just started counting (anything to take my mind off the running) and I pushed through. Six intervals, done!

The last couple of interval runs on the treadmill, I felt like I probably could have pushed myself a little harder; today, however, I definitely pushed to the max and I was totally spent when I was done. My legs felt pleasantly sore all day after that.

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For Taste Test Tuesday this week, I made a pasta dish called One Pot Roasted Red Pepper and Sausage Alfredo (another recipe I found on Pinterest). This one was interesting, because it took three days to actually make it ;) I was in the middle of cooking it on Wednesday when Jerry's original headache started. I turned off the burner and took him to the emergency room, just leaving the pot on the stove.

I called my mom when we were waiting for the doctor, and she came to the ER to get the kids, while my dad went over to my house to get Joey. While he was there, he put the pot in the fridge so it wouldn't go bad. I figured I may be able to salvage it, because the residual heat had probably finished cooking the pasta. The next day, we wound up in the emergency room again; so, once again, we didn't get to eat it for dinner. Finally, on Friday, I took the pot out of the fridge and heated it back up on the stove. I threw in the spinach and parmesan cheese, and called it done.

It ended up being really tasty, and Jerry even said that it's his favorite dinner I've ever made!

I made a couple of modifications to the original recipe--I eliminated the goat cheese entirely, because I don't like goat cheese (I had planned to use cream cheese instead, but totally forgot to put it in there); I used turkey Italian sausage; I also added more pasta (16 oz total), which made it less calories (because I was able to get 8 servings out of it instead of 6). For one serving, it was 394 calories. It was very good! Jerry requested that I make this again often. Hopefully it won't take three days to cook it next time ;)

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Blood patch

Well, I guess I spoke too soon yesterday about Jerry being better. After I'd scheduled yesterday's post, and we were just talking about whether to go to the party, Jerry had another horrible headache--the worst one yet. It was another spinal headache from the spinal tap he'd had on Wednesday. When we went to the emergency room on Thursday for the spinal headaches, the doctor told us that if they didn't stop on their own by Monday, to go back in there and get a "blood patch". Well, yesterday, the pain was unbearable, so we went back to the ER to hopefully get the blood patch.

Here is the basic idea of what it is (at least how I understood it from what the doctor said): When Jerry got the spinal tap, the hole made from the needle didn't close, and his spinal fluid was leaking out of the space where it belongs (it surrounds the spinal cord and brain). Because of that, the spinal fluid level wasn't able to build back up to what it should have been. Spinal fluid surrounds the brain and acts as a cushion, and without it, the brain doesn't have that "shock absorber".  That's what was causing the horrible headaches.

To fix that, an anesthesiologist can draw blood from the patient's arm, and inject it near the original spinal tap site--the blood will then quickly form a clot over the leak, and the spinal fluid can build back up to a normal level again. When I asked why they don't just do the blood patch immediately after the spinal tap, I was told that ER doctors can do spinal taps (which are used for diagnoses), but they cannot do the blood patch; and usually, an anesthesiologist is not at their beck and call to do a blood patch whenever needed.

Anyway, yesterday evening, Jerry and I spent several hours in the ER again. They ended up admitting him to the hospital so that he could get the blood patch first thing today (and keep his pain under control in the meantime). Once they admitted him, I went home for the night.

I couldn't sleep at all last night, and I got up early to go for a run before heading back to the hospital. It was still dark outside, but because I wanted to go to the hospital early, I decided to go run in the dark. It's something I'd been wanting to do anyway. It was really warm this morning--55 degrees at 6:30! I wore a reflective vest and my super bright headlamp, and headed out for three miles.

It was creepy--there is something different about being outside at night versus in the morning, and I definitely prefer the nighttime. I kept seeing the glow of little eyes, and imagined scary beasts (they ended up being cats, haha). My imagination went crazy with all sorts of scenarios. Next time I run in the dark, I'm going to do it at night, and see if I like it better.

Anyway, I finished the three miles at a pretty slow pace (it felt like I was going much faster, but I think that's because it was dark and harder to gauge my pace). Then I took a quick shower and drove to the hospital. Jerry said his blood patch had been scheduled for 9:00. When they came to take him to the pre-op area, I went downstairs to the lobby and had some decaf coffee while I waited. I was told it would probably be an hour or so.

Jerry sent me a text when he got back to his room, and he was already feeling much better. He still had a mild headache, but within the next hour, it was completely gone (and without using pain meds). His back was slightly sore, but that was normal because of the blood patch. He was discharged at around noon, and was feeling a million times better than he had been over the last five days. The whole way home, I kept asking him, "How's your head?" because I was worried the headache would come back; but it didn't!

He still has to take it easy for a day or two, but the doctor said he should be fine to go back to work on Wednesday. I'm SO relieved! If the blood patch hadn't worked, I didn't know what we were going to do. Thank you all again for all of the thoughts, prayers, and well-wishes for Jerry.

With everything going on over the past several days, I've gotten super far behind on everything from laundry to email. I'm going to try and get caught up tomorrow, so I won't be posting a Motivational Monday post. If you have a submission, please send it anyway, and I will save it for next week!

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Three years since reaching goal

Thanks so much for the well wishes for Jerry! The results of his MRI came back normal, so we are relieved about that. We still don't know what caused the initial symptoms that brought him to the emergency room, but it was probably "just a headache". Unfortunately, the lumbar puncture test brought on a whole host of problems afterward. (Several people mentioned it may have been a migraine, but for a headache to be diagnosed as a migraine, it has to be accompanied by sensitivity to light and/or sound; and/or it has to cause nausea/vomiting. He didn't have those symptoms, so it wasn't a migraine.)

He's had a post-lumbar puncture headache since Thursday afternoon. I wrote about what happened Thursday--he said that headache/backache was the worst pain he's ever felt in his life. After getting home from the ER on Thursday night, he's still been having bad headaches/backaches from the lumbar puncture, but they are progressively getting less painful. He's had to lie flat on his back for most of the past two days. He actually had to call off work for the first time in 13 years yesterday. He was able to get FMLA time approved, though, so he stayed home today as well. He's hoping to go back tomorrow, so we'll see how he's feeling. This whole thing has been rough!

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On Thursday morning, before Jerry's post-lumbar puncture headache started, I had an awesome tempo run. I was scheduled for 14 minutes at tempo pace, and I was hoping to be able to do my tempo pace as fast as last week (last week, the pace was 8:23/mi for 12 minutes). I started with a five-minute warm-up, and then picked up the pace to what felt difficult, but a pace I felt I could hold for the full 14 minutes.

I didn't want to look at the pace on my Garmin, but I kept looking at how much time I had left, and I couldn't help but see my pace. I was surprised to see I was running about an 8:15 pace! It didn't feel like I was running as hard as last week, but I was actually going a little faster. That's progress!

As soon as the timer hit 14:00, I pressed the lap button and then walked for full minute before jogging home. It was a tough 14 minutes, but I was thrilled to see that my pace was 8:10! Soon, I may start seeing my pace dip into the 7:00's--I haven't seen a 7:something mile in a very long time.

Yesterday, I spent the day taking care of Jerry (every time he tried to sit upright or stand up, his head would start throbbing again). I bought him the new Star Wars game for the Xbox, so he was able to lie down and play that most of the day.

This morning, I had plans to meet up with Stephanie for my long run. She's not training for anything in particular right now, but she still likes to do a long, slow run on Saturdays. Five miles isn't super long, but she agreed to do it with me, and I love having company on my runs!

My alarm actually woke me up at 6:00 (normally, I wake up on my own at around 5:00 or 5:15). I was SO drained from the past few days. Also, I had taken a Xanax last night before bed, because I was worried about Jerry (Xanax makes me very tired). So, when I got out of bed, I was kind of regretting agreeing to meet so early (7:00), but once I got dressed, I woke up a little.

I wasn't expecting it to still be so dark at 7:00! I take Noah to the bus stop at 6:45, but it's usually just starting to lighten up after that. Today was a very foggy morning, so it was extra dark. Neither Steph nor I had brought a headlamp or flashlight, so the first 20 minutes or so of the run was a little difficult to navigate. I know a perfect five-mile route at the park, but I actually missed the turn onto the bike path because it was so dark, and I didn't realize it until we'd gone about a tenth of a mile past it. So, we had to turn around, but thankfully I'd realized the mistake before we'd gone too far.

We talked a lot about the new Weight Watchers program (Stephanie also counts calories now, but she is tracking both calories and SmartPoints to see how the new WW program compares to the old one out of curiosity). I'm doing the same thing this week--tracking my calories as usual, but also inputing my food log into the WW app. I'll share the results of that on Wednesday. Steph and I shared a lot of the same thoughts about the new WW plan.

Because of our little detour early on, we ended up running 5.23 miles total. It was great to have her company, and I loved getting my long run done before 8:00 this morning! It was fun to check out Smashrun afterward, too. I earned my "5K badge", which made me laugh when I read the commentary:

There were also a ton of Notables for this run:

I think the "hardest hills" part is funny, because I think the only "hill" at the state park has an incline of about six feet ;) But, it's more than any of the routes around my house!

Other than my run, Jerry and I have had a lazy day. He's been trying to get up and move around a bit, but when the headache returns, he has to lie back down. He's getting really frustrated about not being able to do things. Tonight, we are supposed to go to our friends' house for an ugly Christmas sweater party. We both would really like to go, and we've been looking forward to it for weeks, but we'll have to see how he's feeling later on. We may just go for an hour or so to see everyone.

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I just realized when I was scheduling to publish this post that today is the 12th. I hit my goal weight exactly three years ago today! It was an easy date to remember: 12-12-12. That was when I reached 133, and I stayed within a short range 130-136ish for nearly a year. While I struggled from 2014-2015, I'm very happy to be back at my goal weight today, three years later.

When I first started losing weight, the odds were stacked against me that I would even reach my goal; and then, once reaching goal, the odds of staying there were (are) even slimmer. I've learned SO much over the past six years, both from losing and then maintaining (and gaining and losing again). I'm hoping that the lessons I've learned will help me to figure this maintenance thing out ;) So far, so good!

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The worst headache ever

The last couple of days have been kind of crazy! I wasn't sure if I wanted to write about this, but it was pretty scary and it has taken up a lot of my head space for two days now, so it's hard not to write about it.

Yesterday afternoon, I was in the kitchen cooking dinner, and Jerry was there chatting with me. He suddenly got this horrible headache--he grabbed his head and was moaning. He's never very dramatic when it comes to stuff like that, and I have a hard time even getting him to take a Motrin when he gets the occasional headache, but he was clearly in a lot of pain and he took two Motrin right away.

I told him to go sit on the couch while I finished making dinner, but something about the way he looked and the way he was acting had me really worried. I remembered Dr. Oz saying on his show one time that an aneurysm in the brain would feel like "the worst headache you've ever had" (or something to that effect). Jerry said he'd never felt pain like that, and he was having a hard time even focusing, so I mentioned going to the emergency room (knowing that he would decline).

He was in so much pain that he actually said he thought it was a good idea to go. He said he was also having a hard time taking a deep breath, and the roof of his mouth felt odd. On the way to the hospital (it's about a 30 minute drive), he said his left arm was going numb and felt really cold. When he said that, I feel really panicky.

When we got to the ER, he was seen right away. I felt kind of silly going there for "just a headache" (Jerry did, too), but I would rather have been safe than sorry. When Jerry described what was going on to the doctor, the doctor ordered a CT scan. I was totally unprepared when the doctor came in and told us that there was an abnormal spot on the scan. He said it could either be a small stroke, or it was just normal brain tissue that happened to look abnormal on the scan--and we would have to do an MRI to find out which. The word "stroke" actually took my breath away. It was even more concerning because the spot on the scan was the area of his brain that, if damaged, would possibly affect his left arm.

First, though, because of the severe headache, the doctor wanted to do a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) to check for pressure or bleeding on the brain. The words "spinal tap" scare me to death--it sounds absolutely awful. Jerry was scared, too, but because of his symptoms, agreed to it. So, the doctor performed the lumbar puncture, and that (thankfully) came back normal. He said that if the CT scan had been normal as well, he would have probably just sent Jerry home; but because the CT scan had that abnormal spot on it, he wanted to find out what that was.

He wanted to transport Jerry by ambulance to a different hospital, because the emergency room where we were didn't have an MRI machine. Jerry would have to stay the night there and then get an MRI the next day (today). After talking about it for a minute, we asked the doctor if we could just go home and then have our family doctor order the MRI (the ambulance cost plus hospital stay would be very expensive). He would have preferred we just went right to the hospital, but he called our family doctor to check on getting the MRI order, and she said she would do that. Jerry really didn't want to spend the night at the hospital, so we went home (by this time, it was already 10:30 pm). Meanwhile, my mom had come to the ER several hours prior to get my kids; so thankfully, she and my dad were able to take care of the kids and Joey while this was going on.

This morning, Jerry was feeing much better. The headache was gone, his back was a little sore from the lumbar puncture, but he was actually feeling like the trip to the ER was a big waste of time. I went for a run this morning (had a great tempo run!) and when I got home, Jerry said that his MRI was scheduled for 2:00 today. I was shocked that they got him in right away, but that was awesome!

We went to Sam's Club to pick up some stuff, and then stopped for lunch. When we were getting in the car to head to the hospital, Jerry's headache started again. He said it felt different this time, though, and was likely due to the lumbar puncture (the doctor had warned him that he may get a headache).

We went to radiology, and once we got in the waiting room, Jerry was hit with SO MUCH PAIN in his head and his back. I didn't know what to do--he needed the MRI, and we were already there; but I thought maybe we should go back to the ER. He was sure the pain was from the lumbar puncture, though, and he wasn't having any other symptoms, so he decided to stay for the MRI.

While we waited, I felt absolutely terrible. I've never seen him in so much pain, and I felt really helpless. We were in the radiology department, and there weren't even any doctors there (I asked if he could get pain meds, and they said they aren't allowed to do that, and he'd have to go to the ER). So I asked if they could let Jerry lie down on a bed, and I walked as fast as I could to the other side of the hospital to the pharmacy. I bought a bottle of Motrin, and rushed back to radiology. He looked even worse than before. I've only seen him cry a handful of times in 16 years, so when he does, it totally breaks my heart.

I gave him three of the Motrin and some water, and I just kept asking what I could do to help. He told me to call our family doctor and tell her what's happening, and ask if we should go back to the ER. She called me back right away and said yes, we should go to the emergency room as soon as the MRI was done.

When Jerry went back to the room for the MRI, I just went outside and started crying and crying. I had been trying not to cry in front of him, because I didn't want to freak him out more, but I just felt so awful seeing him in that much pain.

When he came out of the MRI, he was doing MUCH better. He said that lying down had helped a lot (the ER doctor had told us that he should try to lie down flat). Each time he sat up or stood up, the headache and backache would return. We walked out of radiology and right next door to the ER.

The doctors in the ER weren't at all surprised about the pain from the lumbar puncture--they said it happens that severely in about 10% of patients. Jerry was lying flat, and feeling better by the minute. They gave him an IV for fluids, pain meds, and caffeine. Apparently, caffeine really helps the headache, so they gave him 500 mg(!) of caffeine through the IV.

We stayed for what felt like an eternity, but was actually about four hours. The pain meds and caffeine combo really helped him, and he was feeling good by the time we left. We are still waiting for the results of the MRI, but the ER doctor took a look at it and said that there wasn't anything grossly abnormal from what he could see (but he reminded us that he is not a radiologist, so we should wait for the actual report).

So, we basically spent this afternoon/evening (AND yesterday afternoon/evening) in the emergency room. I was worried sick today, but I feel a lot better after seeing the doctor in the ER, and hearing him explain that it's not going to kill him, and the headache/backache that he was experiencing today was just from the test yesterday.

We still don't know exactly what happened to cause the initial symptoms, but it very likely could have just been a very bad headache. When I fainted and broke my jaw, it was totally out of nowhere--I'd never fainted before, and I haven't fainted since--so it was just a freak thing that happened one time. I told Jerry that maybe his "worst headache ever" was just his "freak thing". Of course, we still have to wait for the MRI results (hopefully by tomorrow), but right now, I'm just glad that Jerry is feeling better!

I don't have any pictures to go with this post, so I'll just share one of my favorite pictures of Jerry. (This was his first time ever tasting a Big Mac!)

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Smashrun and Week 17 Weigh-in

A couple of days ago, I told my friend Gigi (who blogs at Running on Candy) that I would write up some speed work plans for her to work on getting faster, and I emailed them to her yesterday. Afterward, she said that as a "thank you", she wanted to give me a premium membership to a website called Smashrun. It's basically a site that tracks all of your running stats (which could be uploaded from Garmin Connect). It has all of the basics that Garmin Connect gives you, but it also has a about a trillion other numbers to geek out over. (You can upload info from several other sources, and not just Garmin, but I don't know anything about those.)

The website is free, unless you get the premium version, which has some extra options. As soon as I signed up and clicked around for all of seven whole seconds, I was totally hooked. There is so much fun information! For example, as soon my Garmin Connect info was uploaded, a fun fact popped up that I tend to run 52% shorter distances when the temperature is below freezing.

My favorite part of the site is where, on each individual run, there is a section called "Notable". There, it gives you fun facts about that particular run... things like, "This was your fastest 5K in a month", or "This was the most elevation gained in 6 months", or "This was your first run in Oregon", or "This was your highest average heart rate in 3 months", etc. There are SO many different notable facts! It's really fun to look through some of my old runs (dating back to 2010).

You can quickly glance at fun facts and data based on the year, the month, the week, or the day (of any time frame you choose). For example, with one little click, I can see that in 2010, the day of the week that I most often ran on was Monday, with an average of 6.1 miles, 44 times throughout the year; and the day that I ran on the least often was Saturday, average of 8.3 miles, 9 times.

Another click, and I can see that in 2013, my average overall pace was 9:09/mile; my average run length was 5.8 miles; my average number of days per week that I ran was 5.1; and that 92% of the time, I ran in the morning.

Here, you can see at a glance for the entire year (any year) the distances run. You can then click on those little boxes to pull up the individual runs:

(The big chunks of grayed out boxes are where I was taking time off for injury this year.)

The site also has "badges" that you can earn, and ordinarily, that is not something that motivates me. But once I started looking through the different badges, I was thinking about how I wanted to work on earning them! Here are just a few examples:

Run 75 miles in any calendar month.
Run a total of 858 miles (the distance from NYC to Chicago)
Complete 10 runs in a month slower than 10:00/mile pace
Complete 10 runs in a month faster than 8:00/mile pace
Run at least 10 days in March
Run 10 runs that start before sunrise and end after sunrise.
Do 10 runs after sunset on a full moon.

And LOTS of others. Pretty crazy, right? I think it would be a lot of fun to work on getting the badges--it's a different sort of running goal than just aiming for a PR. As I train for my 10K, I'm going to start working on some of the badges.

There is one coming up that has to be done on the shortest day of the year:

Since that opportunity only comes up once a year, I'm going to make it a point to do it on the 22nd!

Something else that is fun for each run is that it gives you a food equivalent for the amount of calories you just burned. For example, after an 18-mile run I did in April 2012...

(You could choose to see a healthy food equivalent instead, but where's the fun in that?)

Anyway, I have had way too much nerdy fun with this website (thank you SO much, Gigi!), so I just wanted to share it. Here is a link to join, if you're interested (I get "badge" credit for referring people). There is so much to share that this is only a tiny part of it. If you're a numbers nerd, like I am, you will probably love the site!

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Anyway, today was a good weigh-in! I maintained from last week...

My calories were pretty high this week--my average calorie intake per day was 1,949. I didn't plan to do that, but it's nice to know that I can eat that much and maintain my weight, at least. Because I've been focusing on going for a walk every single day, even if it's just a short one, my steps were higher this week, too (just under 10,000 on average per day).

Two weeks down on maintenance and it's going well so far :)

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Weight Watchers Beyond the Scale - SmartPoints

(ETA: Here is an updated post I've written about my thoughts on Weight Watchers Beyond the Scale SmartPoints, as well as a comparison of calories vs. SmartPoints. It's pretty shocking.)

After my run this morning, I went to Weight Watchers to weigh in. The new WW program (called Beyond the Scale) started this week, and I was very curious to learn about it. I don't plan on doing it, but I wanted to at least get the info. And since I'm a free lifetime member, I like to continue to weigh in to keep my membership. The meetings are motivating sometimes, too.

I weighed in, got the new materials, and then went and sat down for the meeting. Some of the women around me were flipping through their books, and one woman said, "A quarter cup of dried cherries is 8 Points!" I actually gasped out loud when I heard that. Dried cherries are pretty much my favorite food ever, and they were 4 PointsPlus. Not anymore--with the new plan, they are now 8 SmartPoints (that's what they're calling the Points on the new system).

The new program uses calories, saturated fat, sugar, and protein to determine the amount of SmartPoints in a food. If you're a healthy eater already, or your ultimate goal is to make healthy choices, the new plan is a great tool--foods that are high in sugar and saturated fat are very high in SmartPoints, while foods that are high in protein are lower in SmartPoints. Fruits and veggies are still 0 Points. Interestingly, alcohol has gone down in Points (just a little). One shot (1.5 fl. oz.) of liquor is now 3 SmartPoints, whereas it was 4 PointsPlus.

Weight Watchers also did away with the Good Health Guidelines. I guess that if you're following the new plan, you will tend to make healthier choices anyway, so there is no need to specifically track them.

As a lifetime member at goal, my daily SmartPoints target would be 36 to maintain my weight. I'm not sure how many weekly SmartPoints I would get (it's different for everyone, but I think Glenda, my leader, said that Lifetimers still get 49).

Also different is that members are discouraged from using "FitPoints" (previously "Activity Points") on food. The purpose of earning them is so that WW can set an exercise goal for you to reach each day.

I can't get the WW app to work (apparently, it's a problem for everyone--even my leader said she doesn't have a working app yet). The website is glitchy, and still showing all the old PointsPlus stuff, too. Once everything is working, I may calculate the SmartPoints in a week's worth of my current diet just to see how it compares to my calories eaten.

I really like counting calories, though, so I don't plan to switch! If any of you are trying out the new Weight Watchers plan, I'd be very curious to hear your thoughts on it. My friend Andrea has been doing it for three days and she loves it!

Personally, there is no way I would be able to stick to this plan. Weight Watchers just keeps making it more and more difficult for people to change their habits gradually, and I'm disappointed.

(ETA: Here is an updated post about Weight Watchers Beyond the Scale SmartPoints thoughts, as well as a comparison of calories vs. SmartPoints. It's pretty shocking.)

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This morning, I had intervals on the schedule. Usually, I like to do them on the treadmill, but for some reason I wanted to do them outside today. The weather was great (36 degrees and very little wind). I was curious to see how my current outdoor interval pace compares to December 2012, when I was working on getting faster. Also, it will be nice to see in a couple of months if today's pace will have improved.

On the schedule: 0.5 mile warm-up, 5 x 0.25 miles with 60 seconds recovery between intervals. On the treadmill, I just stand still and catch my breath for 60 seconds, but outside, I would just walk very slowly between intervals. The bonus of doing just 5 intervals is that the distance is so short!

I jogged very slowly for the first half mile. I was nervous for the intervals, per usual (which is so dumb to get nervous over! Who really cares but me?). When my Garmin hit 0.5 miles, I started running hard. I wasn't sure how hard to run. I didn't want to sprint all-out, because I needed enough energy to finish four more intervals; but I wanted to make sure I was using my full potential.

I didn't even look at my Garmin the entire time. I didn't want to get discouraged or let it mess with my head, so I just kept my Garmin covered with my shirt sleeve, and then whenever it beeped, I knew to start or stop the intervals. I turned around after the second interval, and then stopped my watch after the recovery of the fifth interval.

I'm not sure how I feel about the pace for my intervals. I guess the pace is probably about what I expected. Again, it's just hard to imagine running a 10K near that pace in about four months!

My splits were 1:56, 2:00, 1:51, 1:55, 1:54; which translates in minutes per mile to: 7:44, 8:01, 7:22, 7:39, 7:36. That's an average interval split of 7:40. Last week, on the treadmill, I ran them at 8.2 mph, which is a 7:19/mile pace. The treadmill always feels easier to me, so that sounds about right. (For comparison, in 2012, I averaged 7:10/mi pace for outdoor intervals).

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Motivational Monday #132

Happy Motivational Monday! I hope everyone is having a fantastic holiday season so far. I'm kind of relieved not to be worried about losing weight right now, and just hoping to maintain my weight through the holidays. The holidays aren't usually a big struggle for me to stay on track, though; it's summertime that's a killer for me!

This week, aside from counting my calories, I am proud of myself for getting in a walk every day. There were a couple of bitterly cold days where I really didn't want to do it, but I felt good about it once I was out there. And there were a couple of really nice weather days that I may have missed out on if I hadn't been pushing myself to go for a walk once a day!

Also, I know this sounds kind of trivial, but I am proud of myself for going ice skating with Jerry and the kids on Saturday. I know that if I had still been 253 pounds, there would have been no way of getting me on that ice. Even now, I was a little tempted to just sit out and watch them skate, but I figured that now that I have this body, why waste what it's capable of?! I knew the kids would love for me to skate with them, and I was right. Anyway, in terms of Motivational Monday, that would be my proud moment of the week ;)

Here are a couple more proud moments to share with you this week. Enjoy!

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Here is an email from Audrey:

"I have struggled with my weight since I was a child - like I don't think I've been a healthy weight since I was about 6 years old. I have yo-yo dieted up until now. January was my turning point. I got married at the heaviest weight I had ever been - dangerously close to 300 lbs. It was still amazing and the happiest day of my life up until then, but I was so disappointed in myself for letting it get so bad. 

I joined Weight Watchers for the final time, and I still have a long way to go, but am about 40 lbs down from where I started in February. I recently started mixing exercise into my routine with a mini stepper, and I just feel so much better!! So when a friend said she needed more members of her 5K team I decided to kick my 2016 goal to the curb and sign up. I was so nervous but it was one of the best times I've ever had! I can see why people love them so much!! 

We walked the whole thing (except for the last tiny stretch at the finish line) and our time was 53 minutes. I'm super excited for that because now I have something to beat!!"

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And an email from Kate, who hit a huge running milestone:

"This weekend I completed my first half-marathon in a sweaty two hours and four minutes! I'm one of those people who would never, ever have imagined becoming a runner but I started running this year after discovering your blog and I love it. I didn't think to take a photo before, after or while I was running but I did snap this picture of my Garmin as proof - for myself at least - that it did happen."

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A huge congratulations to Audrey and Kate! Anyone else want to share something you've done this week that makes you feel proud?

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Treadmill hills

This will just be a quickie post... not much to say today!

This morning, I had just three miles on the schedule. For some reason, I had the odd idea pop into my head to do hills on the treadmill today. Lately, I've been wanting all of my runs to have a purpose--to make me a faster runner--and while I know that easy running serves a purpose, I figured throwing in a few hills couldn't hurt.

Since I don't have any hills to run around here, I have to make do with the treadmill. Joey insisted on coming out to the garage with me while I ran, so he came and sat on the couch to supervise (when he wasn't standing so close to my legs that I could feel his whiskers brush against me while I was running).

I've noticed a bit of a discrepancy in my Garmin foot pod when I change the incline on the treadmill, which is odd. The speed on the treadmill can stay steady, but if I change the incline, the pace on my Garmin changes a little. I'm not sure why that is. I'm thinking maybe because when there is an incline, my foot touches the ground just a split second before it would if I were running without incline--so the foot pod "thinks" I'm taking quicker steps...? Anyway, I figured it would be a good time to test it out.

I started the treadmill at 6.0 mph (10:00/mi) and left it there for the entire three miles. Then, for the first mile, I used an incline of 4%. It was harder than it sounds! After that first mile, I lowered the incline to 0% (unfortunately, I can't practice downhill running on the treadmill) for mile two. Then, I ran from mile 2 to 2.5 at 5% incline, and from 2.5-3 miles, I ran at 0% incline. All-in-all, I ran 1.5 miles at an incline of 4-5%, which is pretty good. The pace reading did vary, just as I suspected, even though I kept the speed on 6.0 the whole time.

Pace graph

Basically, if I am running at an incline, the foot pod shows that I'm running faster than I actually am; if I'm running at no incline, it shows I'm a little slower than I actually am. Interesting!

I have no idea why my calories burned was so LOW. Only 229 calories for a 3-mile run? The heart rate graph shows that it was pretty low for the first 3/4 of a mile, so I wonder if maybe it just wasn't getting a proper read on my heart rate.

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Anyway... I've been doing really well so far with getting in a walk every day. This evening, I was getting changed into my pajamas when I realized I hadn't gone for a walk today (I'm trying not to count my runs as part of my walk-once-a-day goal). Even though it was pitch black outside, I grabbed Joey's leash and a flashlight, and we headed out for a walk around the neighborhood. We only walked about 3/4 of a mile, but it was really nice!

I'm usually scared of running/walking in the dark (I'm not sure when that started--I used to do it all the time, but over the past couple of years I developed a fear of it). It was really peaceful tonight, and it certainly helped that the weather was great, so I think I'll walk in the dark more often.

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Don't forget, tomorrow is Motivational Monday! If you have a submission, please email it to me tonight or early tomorrow. If I don't get any this week, I won't be posting again until Tuesday.

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Fun with the family in Detroit

Jerry had the day off today, so we decided to do something fun with the kids, although we weren't entirely sure what to do. First, I had to get my long run done (right now on my schedule, a "long" run is just four miles). It was much colder than I anticipated outside, and I realized within a quarter mile or so that I'd underdressed for the weather.

Just like last week, I actually felt really amazing right from the start, and I could tell it was going to be a good run. I even decided to add on half a mile--I did four last week, and next week is five miles--so I figured 4.5 would be a good transition.

A couple of miles in, I saw something move out of the corner of my eye, and it happened to be right next to my feet. I jumped into the middle of the street, without even looking for cars, because it startled me so badly. Then I realized it was a raccoon. It didn't look visibly hurt, but it was crawling around like maybe its back legs were broken. I felt really sorry for it, but there wasn't anything I could do. I just hoped it would be gone when I went back around that way, because otherwise, I'd be thinking about it all day. I ran by the spot again a mile and a half later, on my way home, and it was gone. I don't know where it went, but I was glad that it wasn't there any longer!

I didn't look at my Garmin at all the entire run, but I was guessing my pace to be around 9:15/mile. When I got home, I saw that I was pretty close--and I had negative splits! A good run today.

Today's run was the end of week two of my 10K training plan. So far, so good :)

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Jerry and I were talking about what to do with the kids today, and I got a reminder on Facebook of an event in Detroit. The Detroit Urban Craft Fair was going on at the Masonic Temple this weekend, and I wanted to check it out. I thought maybe we could all go and make an afternoon of it--the craft fair, ice skating at Campus Martius, and lunch at Redsmoke. The kids have actually never been on the People Mover in Detroit, either, so I thought they'd have fun doing that.

First, we went to the Masonic Temple. It's a gorgeous building!

There is a huge hall on the third floor, which is where the craft fair was. There were 100 vendors, and an anticipated 9,000 people attending--it was crazy busy in there! We shuffled our way up and down the aisles of crafts, periodically stopping to check things out. Noah bought a belt, and I bought a journal and a couple of coasters. There were several Detroit shirts that I wanted, but they were pretty expensive, so I didn't get any.

After we left the craft fair, we drove to Greektown to park and then take the People Mover to Campus Martius. Noah was really worried about riding the People Mover... he kept asking me, "Are you sure this is safe?" ;)

When we got to the park, there was a huge tree decorated for Christmas right next to the ice rink.

I hadn't been ice skating since I was probably about 10 years old, so I had no idea how it was going to go. We got our skates on, and Jerry and Noah started skating right away. Eli and I were just barely making baby steps on the ice. At first, I thought there was no way I was going to be able to make it around the rink even once--skating was much harder than I remembered!

Eventually, though, I got a little more confident, and I wasn't hugging the walls anymore ;) Eli was doing really well, too.

It was a lot of fun to try something different. The kids had a blast, and kept thanking us for taking them there.

After that, we walked back to the People Mover and took it back to Greektown. Then we went to Redsmoke for lunch. Redsmoke is a really good barbecue restaurant; I first tried it when I was in Detroit for the Tour de Troit ride, and then Jerry and I brought Thomas there in October. I LOVE their caesar salad with pulled chicken, and that's what I've ordered each time I've gone. It's hard to try anything new when I found something I like so much!

After lunch, we walked a few doors down to Astoria Pastry Shop. Every time I've walked by there, I've wanted to go in and buy something, but I never do. Today, the kids really wanted to pick out a dessert, so we went inside. Jerry and I got a German chocolate brownie to share. My high calorie day was actually yesterday, so I didn't want to go overboard today, especially after the huge caesar salad for lunch.

The day ended up being a very fun impromptu family day in Detroit. The kids loved seeing parts of Detroit that they hadn't seen before (we rode the People Mover around the entire loop for them). Ice skating was a great way to be active even in this cold weather. It put me in the mood for Christmas!

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