Tag: plan
10 in 20 – Day 8 – End of Week One
It’s Day 8, but technically a week since I started this 10 in 20 thing and the first week results are…I’m down 5 pounds. Currently at 173lbs. Great work for a week, I’d say. But there’s no time to rest on any laurels because I’m only halfway there to my goal. And really, the larger goal will be to lose 10 more after that, so it’s not time to slack off! Although, as you’ll see, I did have a TINY treat today.
Losing so much my new WW Daily Goal is 36 points. I didn’t use ANY Flex Points last week. Going to try and do the same this week. Keep things on the right path.
Little blue today as I woke up to rain in Los Angeles. Blue because it puts a ‘damper’ on my afternoon runs. See, though I do have access to a gym, I really can’t get into running on treadmills. I just don’t like the feeling that I’m exerting all this energy and I’m going nowhere. So the rain mean no running. I mean, you COULD run in the rain, but why would you? Luckily, the rain burned off by the afternoon and I was able to get my run in! Hurray!
Okay, let’s get to the eats!
Portos Pan Con Bistec (Steak Sandwich), Plantains & Bottle of water – 15 WW Points*
This is an estimate as this exact item is not in the WW tracker. The individual items are though and I was able to piece it together. Also I over estimate the number of plantain chips just to be sure. Besides the salad I had last week, this is my other ‘go to’ at Portos. I love this sandwich. I will say the me that isn’t trying to lose pound would also add a potato ball (or two) to this as well. Potato Balls are Porto’s specialty. Fried balls of mashed potatoes with beef in the middle. They are amazing. I did work out the WW points once and it was something like 23 points per ball or something crazy like that. Makes you think twice.
Pretzel M&M – 4 WW Points
Here’s the treat! Pretzel M&Ms. Lowest points of the M&Ms products that I’ve tried (haven’t tried coconut, so I can’t say). Just a little ‘keep it up’ treat as I’ve felt I’ve been doing really good. I love, love, love peanut M&Ms. Really, very much but those are WAY too many points, especially when I’m trying to lose weight, so I went for the pretzels. Did a little audio editing. Chomped on some pretzel M&Ms. Good afternoon.
Banana – 0 WW Points
After those M&Ms it’s back to good healthy stuff so that’s back to bananas!
Activity – 30 Minutes Running
Now, the treats are over until next week. It’s time to focus more on making that final five. I’m not going to push myself to lose it all again in another 7 days, but I want to get close to make those last few days before the 20th a piece of cake. Mmmmmm cake.
Thanks again for all your support! I really do appreciate it.
Onward!
10 in 20 – Day 6 – It Works!
My friend and comedian, Ed Crasnick, has a saying, “It works if you work it.” He uses it at the end of his show the Self-Help Comedy Hour. It’s a podcast I’ve been on a few times that deals with mental health. His guests are all comedians and, trust me, we need a lot of help with our mental health. Anyway, Ed signs off that way each show meaning, this Self-Help stuff actually does work if you actually do the work. Today, I’m borrowing it and applying it to me meeting my goals.
This morning I got on the scale and it read 173.0 LBS. That’s down 2.5 lbs from the last time I lost some pounds. It also brings the total up to 5 LBS lost! That’s halfway to the goal in less than a week. I was super stoked.
My brain, however, instantly, said, “Make a bigger goal! 20 in 20!” and I really had to reign myself in. I believe it’s fine to dream big dreams, but keep the goals small. My goal is still 10 by October 21st. If, at some point before that, I loose the 10 I think of a stretch goal. Kind of like Kickstarter, though I guess in this situation it’d be a Stretch Mark Goal? Maybe not.
The numbers on the scale though amped me up. In days past, it would have made me feel like I could go out and splurge on some food today because I’ve been doing so well. Today though, it refocused me. Got me set to work even harder at dropping those pounds.
I will say that if I do drop 10 before I leave for Toronto, I may treat myself to a BBQ dinner on Oct. 20, the night before I leave. I MIGHT. Haven’t decided yet. My reasoning is that I will have been doing good with my weight and I’ll be in Canada for several weeks and will miss my favorite barbecue place. Though they probably have barbecue in Toronto. Is Canada known for their barbecue? Anyway, let’s get to the food!
Subway 6″ Turkey Breast on wheat, Baked Lays Sour Cream & Onion Chips and water – 11 WW Points
I did splurge a little and get Chips during this meal instead of apple slices. They are only 4 points though so they don’t add that much.
2 Bananas – 0 WW Points
Banana as a midday snack while I was at the office editing. Around 430PM or so I was starting to get a little hungry and I had another banana. Was about to eat it but figured I could wait. Dinner will be at 530PM, so I figured I could hold off until then. But then I started thinking, “If you do that, you’ll be HUNGRIER at dinner and may be tempted to eat more.” So I had the banana/ The other banana looked just like that one. Not going to bore you with TWO pictures of bananas.
Boneless skinless chicken breast, 1/2 cup white rice and PLANTAINS – 21 WW points*
The food at Henson tonight was, as expected from a place called Bassa Nova. The point total there is my best guess. I may be a little off because WW Online makes you record the plantains in cups or oz. I did my best figuring and came up with 21 total for the meal. The food was good. I could have eaten MUCH more. To try and prevent myself, I cut my food into REALLY small bites. Yeah, I looked like a doofus, but it worked. I tricked myself into eating less. Though I did have ONE more plantain than you see on my plate there. But I could have eaten 20 more. They are just SO good. So tomorrow I may bounce back up a bit on the scale, but I know it won’t be that much and I know I can get it right back down.
ACTIVITY – Running 30 minutes.
I like where this is headed and I seemed to have shaken those intense food cravings I’ve been having for the past few weeks months years. Really happy.
10 in 20 – Day 3 – Going good
Welcome to Friday and the start of the weekend, where you will want to eat…EVERYTHING.
Did not wake up with a headache this morning so that is awesome. Felt pretty good. I think I’ve found my balance in eating just the right amount.
Hopped on the scale this morning and…..down another pound and a half! Whoo! That’s 2.5 lbs since the start. This is what happens when I start eating right, I’ll drop a few pounds right at the start then plateau a bit then drop steadily.
I will say Ii’m still getting some major cravings though. I started today with a salad from a place called Chop Stop. I’ll talk about the salad more below, but let me tell you what the Grant of a week ago would have done.
Chop Stop is in a little strip mall type area with some other food places a CVS and a Sprouts Supermarket. For the longest time I’d go get a Chop Stop salad then go to Sprouts and get some bananas to have at my office. On the way through Sprouts one day I notced big barrels of all different types of candy. I love me some covered pretzels. Chocolate, Vanilla, Yogurt, whatever…I like them. I saw the Chocolate Covered pretzels and tabulated up the Weight Watchers points for them. 14 chocolate covered pretzels is 5 points. Since the first day I saw those pretzels I’d buy some bananas, a bottle of water and a HUGE bag of chocolate covered pretzels. Not just 14. 28, 38, more. And then the moment I’d get in the car I’d just start eating and, most times, have it finished by the time I got to my office. A 10 minute drive away. Yeah. Not proud.
So today I went to Chop Stop, then Sprouts to get bananas and I didn’t even walk down the pretzel aisle. I did want to get something besides bananas though. Something different so it would sorta be a treat like pretzels. I decided on a couple pears. 0 WW points and I love me some pears. So I’d call that a win.
After my run I was craving that burrito but I resisted, going for a Subway sandwich instead. I’m on track.
So let’s get to today’s food.
Chop Stop BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad – 12 WW Points*
I love this salad and I love Chop Shop. I go back and forth between this one and their Greek Chop. I’ve been more into the BBQ Chicken one recently though. Big bowl of chopped lettuce, corn, black beans and black olives. The Olives don’t come standard, tortilla strips do, so I swap them out. The * above is the total figured out with the tortilla strips. I think it’s a little less, but I still use the full 12 points in my tracking.
Pear – 0 WW Points
I was so looking forward to this pair and it was just okay. I gotta learn how to pick out a good pear. If only there was some recourse at my fingertips that would have such information….. Kidding. I know I could just look it up on YouTube and have a 11 year boy in Kentucky show me how to do it.
Banana – 0 WW Points
Good old banana. Not much to say except I ate it. And it was better than the pear.
Subway 6″ Turkey on Wheat, Baked Lays Sour Cream & Onion Chips & Bottled Water. WW Points = 11 Points
Same old, same old. But it’s a good one.
Activity – 30 minute run
Took my vitamin this morning, again and I’m feeling good. Liking that things are headed in the right direction. Remember, I’m not looking to lose exactly 10 pounds by October 20th, close is good. Want to loose a little more than 2.5. though so work continues.
Thank you for all the support messages here and on Facebook. I really appreciate it.
Goodnight!
10 in 20 – Day 2 – Down a pound
Welcome to Day 2. You’re gonna hurt.
I ate too little yesterday, no doubt about it. Shortly after midnight, my head and stomach hurt pretty bad. I was screaming at myself, inside my head as I usually do, to eat SOMETHING. I refused and just went to bed. See, I’m letting you in on my sickness, my body was telling me to eat and I refused. Now, I refused because, if I ate at that time I would eat a TON. Two, three bowls of cereal. A huge sandwich. Something and a lot of something. So I just went to be hungry.
In the morning, my head hurt even worse than it had before. At about 7AM it was so bad I couldn’t sleep, so I got up and fixed me some instant oatmeal. Ate a bowl of it and went back a rested for another hour or so, feeling much better.
My usual routine is to get up, get ready and leave the house. I never eat breakfast and usually do not eat for an hour or two (or three) after getting up. Usually I’ll eat around 10:30am or 11am. That may have to change. I may need to eat SOMETHING before getting going in the mornings.
Today went well and I consciously ate a little more than yesterday, while still staying in my WW daily points allowance. I also started taking a daily vitamin this morning. Everything I read about losing weight and such says to do so, so I did. I actually take them off and on, but I’m going to be more conscious about taking one daily now.
Anyway, after getting up, the second time, and getting ready I weighed myself. 177 lbs! Down a pound already! My head works this way though, “Crap! I should have weighed myself BEFORE eating the oatmeal. I might have weighed less!” I didn’t eat a POUND of oatmeal, but my head still goes that way.
So, onto what I ate today.
2 Packets of Quaker Maple & Brown Sugar Lower Sugar Instant Oatmeal. WW Points = 6
Love Maple & Brown Sugar oatmeal. Always have. SECRET: Love eating this stuff right out of the packet. No water, no heating up. You heard me. Love it that way. I ate it in a bowl with water this morning.
Porto’s Southwest Steak Salad (No dressing, tortilla strips or cheese) & Bottle of water. WW Points = 12 (estimate)
I love this salad form Portos, a cuban restaurant right across the street from my office. Little tricky to figure out the exact points here as Portos doesn’t have their nutrition available but really only the avocado, steak and black beans count (and I think in my tally I actually over counted the beans. The salad comes standard (like a car) with tortilla strips, cheese and slathered in dressing. I ordered without the tortilla strips and cheese and asked for dressing on the side. When they brought it they forgot the dressing. For a brief second I was going to ask for it then decided I didn’t need it. Great salad
Apple Slices – WW Points = 1 (I say apples are 0, but according to the nutrition on the back of the bag they are 1.)
Mid afternoon snack of some apple slices. Same picture as yesterday, but it’ll save time to recycle pictures.
Subway 6″ Turkey on Wheat, Baked Lays Sour Cream & Onion Chips & Bottled Water. WW Points = 11 Points
Yeah, the chips add more to the point total but, as I said earlier, I wanted to eat a little more than yesterday and avoid that headache. So far so good.
ACTIVITY: 30 MINUTE RUN
My usual run through Toluca Lake. Love running through there. Quiet streets, not a lot of traffic. Shade. Great place to run. Also wanted to note that I usually run before my evening meal, I’m just listing activity last on these report pages.
So that’s day 2! Another day down. I’m realistic in that I know I won’t be losing a pound a day, but losing one off the bat sure feels like a good start. Got the ‘offer’ for the big creative thing I’ll be doing on October 21 (the reason I’m focusing on this slimming down), si it looks like it’s a go. Don’t want to announce too wildly until I get the contract in hand. And my passport. 🙂
With that tease I’ll bid you a goodnight!