Grantblings

10 in 20 – Day 17 – The End Is Near

We’re entering the very final day of this little experiment.  I will still weigh myself before I head off to Toronto on Sunday morning, but tomorrow is last full day of this little challenge.

By the goals I laid out at the start of this whole adventure, I’ve achieved them.  The goal was 10, but getting close was good enough.  I got to 9.5lbs yesterday, so were there.  I’d REALLY like to hit that 10 though, so I ain’t giving in yet.

So this morning the scale flipped out again.  It said 169.5lbs.  Then 168.0Lbs.  Then 169.5lbs again.  Then back down to 168.0lbs.  SO I took out the battery and reset it.  Calibrated it and, after several weighings settled on 168.5lbs.  I’ll gladly take that over 169.5lbs.  So, holding steady from yesterday.  Yay!

I got a haircut today.  It had been two months.  I’m hoping the half pound of hair cut from my head will factor in tomorrow when I get on the scale.

Nearing the end, I have given a bit of thought about the next goal and I think it’s going to be another 10 pounds before Thanksgiving.  I THINK that’s it.  If I can get down to 158lbs, I will feel much happier with my weight.  I’ll actually still be over that old ‘proper weight for your height/age/etc’ chart, but 158 will make me happy and now I know it can be done and in a relatively short time.  That would put me at a nice weight for Mom’s Thanksgiving Dinner.  I’m drooling already thinking about it.

Today I ate pretty well.  I did have a small treat, but I dropped come other foods to make up for it.  Still ate less WW Points than yesterday.  Even with the treat. Okay, let’s take a look at today’s food…

Subway 6″ Turkey on Wheat, Baked Lays Sour Cream & Onion Crisps, bottle of water – 11 WW Points
Yep.  Same old.  Don’t mess with the classics.  It’s a decent sandwich.

Apple Slices – 1 WW Point
Yep.  Same old. *grumble grumble* 1 point.

Pretzel M&Ms – 4 WW Points
Treat!  Not the fun size size.  Though, pretzel M&Ms are so big there’s not that many more in a regular size bag than in a fun size.  Nice to snack on as I was editing video and audio in my office this afternoon.

Subway Turkey on Flatbread & Bottle of water – 8 WW Points
Switched it up for dinner and got the sandwich on Flatbread.  One extra point, so I decided not to have Chips with this mean.  Worked out good.  Filled me up and I was fine.

ACTIVITY – 30 Mins Running

Okay, that’s all for today.  I will see you all tomorrow as we rush headlong to the end!  TOmorrow will be a mad dash of a puppet audition, a kids show and trying to remember to pack absolutely everything I need for Toronto, but I shall still blog and track all my food.  If I make my goal I may splurge a little tomorrow night (I haven’t used any of my WW Flex Points).  If I don’t, I’ll keep it pretty tame.

Okay, goodnight.

10 in 20 – Day #16 – The Half Pound Gamble

So this morning I get up start to get ready for the day and step on the scale.

168.5LBS

Yep.  You read that right.  Just one, tiny half pound away from the goal.  So great, especially after so many days at 171lbs.  This is working and the goal is totally reachable.  Now here comes the gamble.

A friend of mine told me that she wanted to take me out for lunch as sort of a going away present before Toronto.  I said of course and she suggested by weakness…say it with me now…barbecue.  I was really, really torn.  Being so close to the goal this morning, could I risk going to a barbecue place and not gorging out on my favorite food of all time?

After some thought I decided to say yes.  I wanted to test myself.  I wanted to prove to myself I could go to a barbecue place and eat a SENSIBLE barbecue meal. Could it be done?  Could I resist the 3 Meat Combo I love so much and just have a little barbecue?  I told myself, yes, I could.  And thus began the gamble.

Earlier this year I discovered Smoke City Market in on Van Nuys in Sherman Oaks.  J. Elvis Weinstein had mentioned it to me and after trying it a few months ago I was hooked!  Their brisket is amazing.  All their meats are good but that brisket…amazing.  So that where we went today and I have to say I did extremely good.  I had a brisket sandwich.  It comes with a side and I chose their apple & cabbage slaw.  It’s not really heavy on the mayo, more vinegary instead.  It’s great.  And when I went to total up the points, I OVER calculated the coleslaw just to be sure.

What I discovered by calculating up the points is that the brisket sandwich at Smoke City is pretty even, points wise, with the Pan Con Bistec from Portos.  That fact just made me smile.  I always figure that barbecue was so good that it must be super high points.  That’s stupid because it’s just the same a regular meat products.  Heavy points come in from the sauce and, while I did have sauce with my meal, I only had a very little amount.  Why?  Because their brisket is so good you don’t need it.

So I ate my sandwich, my slaw this morning, then found myself growing hungry in the afternoon and had some apples & grapes.  Then for dinner I chose the same as last night.

Now I said this was all a gamble and it was.  I could very see a weight gain tomorrow.  I actually don’t think I will as my point intake today was only 2 points more than what it was yesterday.  Somehow, eating my favorite food has tricked my brain into thinking I over did it.  Even though I went on an EXTRA run today.  I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.

Okay, on to the food!

Smoke City Market Brisket Sandwich, barbecue sauce & cabbage & apple slaw – 17 WW Points
I totally over estimated the coleslaw in this but I wanted to make sure I stayed on point.  Also, there’s no sauce pictured there but I only had very little.  This was a good meal.

Apple Slices & Grapes – 1 WW Points
Apple Slices & Grapes.  What more can you say?

Quaker Lower Sugar Maple & Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal & 1 Fun Size bag of pretzel M&Ms – 8 WW Points
Same dinner as last night.  Still as good.

ACTIVITY – 51 Mins Running

Okay, see you tomorrow!

10 in 20 – Day 15 – Feelings

I did not wake up too hungry despite not eating later in the day yesterday.  Pretty great feeling.  Looks like me wrestling with myself over when I feel hungry and feel the need to eat is winning.  No more big burrito cravings in the later afternoon.  Still didn’t feel too swell to eat much today.  Just not that hungry, but I did make myself eat at least something tonight for dinner.

It’s funny because focusing on achieving this goal, has made me a much better at knowing when I’m really hungry and when I’m just stressed and looking for food to take the edge off.  I think I need a little bit more weight to come off before I start feeling it in how my clothes fit, but my belt isn’t causing me pain anymore, so that’s a good inkling that it’s working.

Tonight I had set out two M&Ms Fun Size packages to have after dinner.  I ate dinner and had one and really wasn’t that hungry for the second one.  Even though there’s only about 6 pieces of candy in each one, one package was enough.  I really like that I’m thinking that way.  Also it seems that since I’m eating smaller portions, I’m getting fuller faster.  The sandwich I had at 10AM really filled me up and I wasn’t hungry until later in the day.  The old me would have had that sandwich, two potato balls, and who knows what else and then still been hungry later in the afternoon.

Wednesday is my Weight Watchers weigh in day and today the scale read 170LBS.  So that’s good.  Down three pounds from the weigh in last week.  We’re getting into the home stretch and I’d really like to lose those final two pounds before Sunday.  Still have some time to make that happen.

As we approach the 20th, I’ve been thinking about what to do with these daily updates.  Once the Toronto shows start, I’ll probably be blogging daily about the things that are happening.  I don’t want to put a lot of irrelevant food info in those entries, so I think what I’ll do is once the 20th passes, I’ll just go to weekly updates on how this weight loss things is going.  I do have a second goal in mind, but I really want to reach the first.  I think weekely updates, possibly on Wednesday, would be enough to keep me motivated.  What do you say?  You guys have been so great with the support comments, Facebook posts and texts throughout this, so I’m asking you.  Weekly updates?  Should I stick with daily?  What?

Okay, on to the food…

Portos Pan Con Bistec (Steak Sandwich), Plantains & Bottle of water – 15 WW Points*
This is an estimate as it was last week.  Great sandwich.  Love those plantain chips.  Just good stuff.

Apple slices & Grapes – 1 WW Point

Just a great afternoon snack.

Quaker Lower Sugar Maple & Brown Sugar Oatmeal & 1 Fun Size package of Pretzel M&Ms – 6 WW Points (Oatmeal) –  2 WW Points (M&Ms)
And this was dinner.  I love maple & brown sugar oatmeal, just do.  Have since I was a kid.  The M&Ms were good too and, as I said, glad I only ate one bag.  Even so they are super low points!  Only 2 points per ‘Fun SIze’ bag.  Nice.

ACTIVITY – 30 Minute running.

That’s it for today.  I will talk to you tomorrow with another tale from the scale!