Indulge

I'm looking forward to my dinner tonight. We're having a birthday party for my mom and husband today, and my wonderful husband has made our meal. It's an alfredo pasta bake with chicken, broccoli, and red peppers - one of my favourite meals. I don't eat this very often, so it will be a nice treat.

Since it's a birthday, we're also having cake. I will be picking up cupcakes from a bakery in-town... they are absolutely sinful and delicious. They make a variety of flavours; everything from chocolate base/chocolate icing, to lemon base/lemon icing, to cupcakes with coconut or peanut butter. They are the best cakes I've ever had. For the party, I plan on picking out an assortment... so much more interesting than one big cake.

I love chocolate and I love sweets - can't you tell?

Ah well... back on track tomorrow.

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I had another good week - down 1.8 lbs.

It took me a few days to get rid of all the water I'd retained from the past weekend... salt really isn't my friend.

This week, I discovered that baked nachos are good with a little cheese and salsa, and are a couple of points less than regular nachos.

I also found that Triscuits are a tasty substitution for nachos. I put some cheese on top, baked them in the oven for a few minutes, and ate them with salsa. They are even fewer points, and much less salt (particularly if you use the low-sodium Triscuits).

And I learned that my husband makes really great chili that's low in points.

A grain of salt

I had a pretty good week. It seems that my weight loss is levelling off to a more reasonable 1-2 pounds per week. I was losing between 3-5 pounds in the first few weeks, and while it was nice, I knew it wouldn't last.

It helps that my husband is now on WW also. He's doing quite well, and has a lot more will power than I've ever had. I love my indulgences... chocolate, frozen yogurt, and sometimes chips. He's cut out all sugar from his diet, and is feeling really good.

I had one of my old favourite diet treat today for lunch - I call it Pineapple Cheesecake, but the term "cheesecake" should be taken very loosely. The recipe came from the Beverly Hills Weight Loss program that I did years ago. I don't recall if I've ever blogged about my experience on that plan, but it calls for its very own entry.... long story... ridiculous diet.

Pineapple Cheesecake

1 cup crushed pineapple
1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese
1/2 pack of powder from low-fat Vanilla pudding mix

Combine ingredients in a bowl.

Top with 3 Tablespoons of Graham Crumbs (optional).

Points = 5

Yum!

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I've been feeling really dizzy this afternoon. This tends to happen when I've eaten too much salt in the day(s) prior. Sometimes chips, nachos, or salty popcorn set me off. Today, I suspect that my problem has to do with the homemade Chinese food I had last night... I used quite a bit of soya sauce.

Chances are, my problem is Meniere's disease. My mother and other members of my family are afflicted with it. And like me, my mom is triggered by salt causing the dizziness. She has been diagnosed, while I haven't. It's always seemed like a waste of time going to the doctor about it when I know very well what my problem is - and there's nothing they can do about it anyhow.

When I get one of these attacks, I stay off my feet as much as possible and drink lots of water in hopes that it will flush the salt from my system.

And it's a good reminder to limit my salt intake.

Never give up

I'm so sick of starting Weight Watchers, only to give up after a month or two. For once and for all, I'd like to do this for life - not just until it gets too difficult, or until I have a crappy week and give up.

I'm hesitant to blog as well.... I feel like a flake. All I do is start and stop my "diet".

Well, I'm going to try this again. I'm going to stop thinking of WW as a diet, but as a way of life.

These are my goals:

- give a shit about what I put into my body
- eat a balanced and varied diet
- watch my portions with the help of WW
- do more yoga
- eat out less & cook more at home

I'm so sick of reading through my blog and seeing how many times I left the 300's behind, only to find myself there again and again.

And here I am again, over 300 pounds. I was 317 two weeks ago, and 309 today.

Currently my motivation is good and I'm doing well... it feels easy at the moment. The problem is finding motivation when I have none... sticking with it... I'm afraid that I still haven't figured out how to do that.


This thought helps to motivate me:

This year will go by with or without you. You can do choose to do nothing, or you can decide to work on losing weight. In a year from now, you will either look back and wonder "what if..." or you will have accomplished your goals. It's your choice.

Here's my "what if..."

What if I keep up these changes and I lose an average of 1.5 pounds per week during 2010?

If I do, I will be at 239 pounds (and very close to my goal) by the end of the year.

On December 31 2010, I don't want to wonder what it would be like - I want to know how it feels to be 239 pounds.

Another fabulous salad

I had a great salad for supper tonight. First I roasted two red peppers in the toaster oven. Once they were charred and had cooled down, I peeled off the skin and sliced it thinly. To the peppers I added:

- arugula (about 2 cups)
- cucumber
- tomato
- red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 ounce of goat cheese
- Kraft calorie-wise Greek dressing

The entire salad was only 7 Points, and filled an entire dinner plate. It was delicious!

Loss!

I had a great loss this week. I got the customary WW message that I'm "losing too fast", yet I followed my Points and ate all of my extra Points. Actually, when I knew on Sunday night that I'd be having a very substantial loss, I treated myself to a couple of extra cookies and went over my Points allowance. Yes, they were worth it.

I'm sure that a lot of my weight loss was water retention. I should have a more reasonable loss this week.

I felt lazy tonight when I got home. This used to mean going to McDonalds for supper, or having some sort of high-fat convenience food like frozen fries. Instead, I made a healthy but easy to prepare supper of chicken breast with barbeque sauce, Uncle Ben's 2 minute Garden Medley rice, and baby carrots with dip. Since I buy my chicken pre-cooked, it was just a matter of putting the chicken in the toaster oven for 20 minutes and two minutes in the microwave for the rice.

I was very happy with myself for not giving into junk food. Who knew that healthy food could also be convenient food!