Trying something new... again

I know anyone who reads this is probably laughing at my bouncing back and forth from plan to plan. I guess I just get bored too easily. And this time I'm going back to something I haven't tried in a very long time... weight loss/protein shakes. I did Slim Fast a long time ago with a little success. This time I'm using Lean1. http://www.nutrition53.com/lean1.htm

The taste is really good... and if I happen to be running errands and near a Smoothie King... they sell smoothies made with it! I'm using the vanilla right now and I tried the strawberry at Smoothie King. Both are pretty tasty. They actually have recipes for smoothies on the website and I loved the idea of the holiday spice one. I attempted it with just ice and water, the normal way you can drink it cause I am, sadly, blender illiterate. I thought the nutmeg was just too much, so now I just sprinkle cinnamon in my mix each time and I love it. A side note about blender bottles... that little metal ball thing doesn't work near as well as crushed ice in my opinion. HEB actually has the Lean1 powders on sale right now if you're tempted to try. So for now I'm using two scoops of powder for a shake twice a day, trying to eat a small snack of pistachios or PB & celery (trying being the operative word for now, yesterday I was really bad), and trying to eat smaller portions at dinner.

I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new running shoes so I can really get back into training for a 5k with Ashley! We'll be doing the Monster Dash 5k on October 27th. (Which reminds me... gotta register soon!) Very excited... though nervous since I've missed a LOT due to shin splints. But they are getting better and I'm praying they'll be gone with the help of the new shoes. They're due to be delivered by end of the day Thursday. Really hoping they get here in the morning so I can test them out while the kids are at Mother's Day Out.

http://www.newbalance.com/New-Balance-790v2/W790-V2,default,pd.html?dwvar_W790-V2_color=Green_with_Silver&start=27&cgid=201100

Those are the shoes I ordered. :-) Although they were on sale for $72!

New App

I found a new app this weekend that I think I'll find useful (and maybe you will too). It's called FoodTrackerPro. It allows you to track your food consumption by food groups and also has a nice serving size page for each food group with lots of examples. I tried to meet all of my goals yesterday and found myself ridiculously full after lunch and my snack. Need to learn to space things out a little I guess. My mom wants me to help her out cause she's signing up for Weight Watchers. I just cancelled our accounts. Lol. I'll still help her, cause it's a great program, I just got bored with it. Plus, I can do really well on that program, but that doesn't mean I'm eating well. I can eat/drink half of my points in 100 calorie snacks and beer if I want to. Not cool. That's why I like this app cause it's helping me focus on what's important. And after that day of being really full, I can adjust it to my size portions :-) Cause let's face it, no one my size needs to eat a whole can of vegetables in one sitting! I'm feeling so much better than I have in a long time (cause of various things I won't post here) and I hope it continues the more I strive to eat better and get more active. I know it won't hurt!

Boredom

Story of my life when it comes to dieting. And once again I come to the conclusion that I hate dieting and just want to change and be better. Which means getting active. So now I'm back to the pedometer. I absolutely loved the idea of Fitbit and came very close to buying one since it was on sale on Amazon yesterday. But after reading the reviews, decided against it. Sounds like it is a great idea in concept but they just haven't figured out the kinks yet. And I've also had lots of trouble finding the battery to replace in my pedometer. So I just bought a pedometer app for my iPod :-) Ahh technology, what would we do without you? As of right now, I have taken 2414 steps. Almost a quarter of my goal of 10,000 steps (seems to be the standard when you look up anything about pedometers). Shows me just how lazy I've been. I bought the iTreadmill app ($1.99) and it is quite slick. Lots of customization and I especially love the auto pause/start feature. When it senses you've stopped, it pauses it. And it has its own screen lock so it'll keep running in your pocket all day long. Seems to not be a big drain on the battery either, which I was worried about.

Just in case you haven't heard of fitbit:

http://www.fitbit.com/product

The biggest draw of it for me, other than the obvious pedometer features, was actually that it monitors your sleep patterns. I'd be very interested to see what that is for me.

11 lbs

11 lbs lost since we started Weight Watchers. :-) Although I have to say that I'm not really understanding the "new" system. I started out with 29 points and now I'm down to 27 per day. When I was on WW before, you lost a point when you got down in a new set of numbers. Like when I went from the 180s to 170s and 170s to 160s and so forth. So I have no idea why I've lost 2 points from 189 to 178. Makes no sense to me. But I suppose since I'm still successful, I won't question it too much. I'm having to pace myself with my "extra" points (you're allotted 49 each week, which used to be 35 I think when I did this before). This week, for example, I have my monthly girls night out on Tuesday. My "extra" points reset every Thursday, so this is kinda tough for me. We're going to Biergarten this month which is right next door to our neighborhood. Love that place! Especially when they have the polka player out on the patio. I already know that I usually order a 2 bratwurst plate with french fries and each brat is worth 8 points (according to my app). I also know that beer is 5 points per 12 ounces. This takes lots of extra planning. So I probably need to stay within my normal points for the next three days so I can splurge on Tuesday. Now if only I can think in these same terms once I get down to my goal weight... They say habits take 6 weeks to form. It's gonna take a lot more than 6 weeks to lose all that weight!

Success!

I have lost 10 lbs so far on Weight Watchers! So I'm back in the 170s for the first time since before I got pregnant with Kaylee. I had a bad week the week of Easter but back on track now. If I behave and keep tracking my points then I should be back in the 160s by my fabulous 30th birthday weekend in Las Vegas! So factoring in the birthday weekend and whatever else happens that causes me to get off track, I'm hoping to be at my goal weight by Kaylee's birthday. If I was super strict and didn't allow any straying I would be at my goal weight by the end of August. But I know that's not reasonable. But it could still happen if I also exercise. I really need to get a routine going with that.

In medical news... I went to an ENT and am now on a sinus cleansing and nasal spray routine. So much fun, let me tell ya. Not sure if it's really making me feel better. I mean I haven't gotten another cold but I've been exhausted and feel stuffed up for part of every day. He said everything sounds like allergies to him. Probably means I'll go find a new allergist soon. But not until after my next ENT appointment. He did ask if I'd ever had a CT scan of my sinuses. Kinda hoping he'll do that next time. I'd just like to make sure there's nothing wrong with my right ear. I have not what I would call chronic ear pain but definitely frequent. Then this week I went to our new primary care doc. After waiting FOREVER and consequently missing my friend at the zoo, I finally talked with the doc a bit about history and stuff. And since heart disease runs in the family he wanted to check my cholesterol. After a failed attempt to take my blood I got a second nurse and even though she got my vein quickly, she bruised me. Terrible. But I also got the results the next day. And got news that I was pretty sure was coming but just one of those things you hate to hear. My LDL (the bad cholesterol) is 129 which at the top of the optimal range. So doc said low fat diet should get it back down.

So life continues and hopefully more weight loss news soon :-)

Update

So things are moving along steadily for us in our goals to get skinny again. Weight Watchers is so much easier to follow. I have lost 8 lbs total in the first two weeks and Brent has lost 11. He has 23 to go and I have at least 30. I haven't decided on my goal weight yet but 30 would get me back to pre-Brendan weight. And that would make me REALLY happy. As far as BMI stuff goes they say I should be in the 130s. I just can't imagine myself at that weight again (I graduated high school weighing 130). So probably 145 will be fine by me. Which means I have 37 lbs to go. Actually looking forward to bathing suit season for the first time since 2009 :-) P.S. Anyone else having trouble with Blogger not posting in the format you typed in? For example, I put a space between my paragraph and this p.s. and I know it won't be there when I hit publish.

Giving up... Moving on

Well, we're stopping this dumb diet. We just don't like vegetables enough. BUT, we're taking some lessons with us as we move on. After the first week I think we both thought that they would be able to help us and motivate us and for the most part we got a "suck it up" type attitude. Our lives revolve around hanging out with friends and part of that includes eating. I'm not saying we're giving up on weight loss but we need a more lenient program for our lifestyle! So we've decided to head to Weight Watchers again. We tried to do WW on our own with apps and such, but we've decided to use the website. Our schedules don't have enough room for the meetings and I didn't really like them that much anyway. And after we lose the weight we are determined to continue eating well and smaller portions. Which our current diet has helped us to learn. It's really hard to believe that it's been 5 years since I started WW the last time. But it is the only thing that I have been successful on AND happy, which I now know is the most important part. And we've kickstarted our metabolisms pretty well so I think it'll be good. I am down 9 lbs, 43 to go! (Sidenote: I lost 30 lbs on WW the first time in 6 months. Can't wait to see September this year! 30 lbs would be down to wedding weight.) Brent is down 22 lbs, 24 to go!

First weigh-in

We did good! I lost 7 lbs in the first week and Brent lost 17. We're getting really bored, really fast though. It's one of those things that I know I feel better than I have in a long time. However, it's tough eating the same things over and over and over again. We don't like that many veggies and so it's tough to make them fresh and new. The Walden Farms brand of sauces helps a little. In fact, we're going to order the alfredo sauce soon. Part of it is that we are used diets where you can go out and it's not the end of the world. They make it sound like it is on this plan. We had decided we were going to cheat on weigh-in nights and at least have a burger or something small. We changed our minds though. I think if it was just their bars and drinks for breakfast, lunch, and snack, we'd have no problem. But adding veggies for lunch is pretty awful for us. We're just not big veggie eaters at all! I love the night time meals. I could eat steak (or chicken or pork or shrimp) and two cups of veggies for a meal every night and be perfectly happy. For me, I miss cheese, chocolate, and wine the most. Wine and chocolate was our date night, stress relief, and celebration thing. Ok, I'm complaining a lot. Obviously this is good. Part of the problem is that corn and potatoes are NOT allowed and green beans are allowed twice a week. For us, these three were staples. So we're having to learn to eat new stuff or stuff that we did like in a different way. The other funny thing though, is I get most cranky at lunch. By the time dinner rolls around, as long as I had my snack, I'm usually ok and ready to finish out the day. I'm making this sound like it's the worst diet ever. I like it. It makes sense. But it's a big change from the norm and so it's tough. I'm glad to be doing this now when the kids are young. And I'm glad we're feeling better because of it.

Le Sigh

I cannot do math. I have only lost 4 lbs. And I should note that Brent has been exercising and I have not. I tried to update our tickers to show our new starting weights and goals, but Ticker Factory was being dumb. So they're gone for now. Maybe I'll add them again later.

Update

We're doing pretty well so far. Figuring out which IP foods we like and which we don't. And figuring out new ways to eat our veggies. Last night we had lean ground beef with bell peppers, jalapenos, and added the spices that are in Old El Paso taco seasoning. We can't have the actual seasoning cause it has sugar and flour in it. Any seasonings/sauces we use have to be calorie, fat, and sugar/carb free. It was really tasty. We've pretty much decided the bars and drinks are the best IP foods. So it's like being on Slim Fast or the Special K plans except with veggies added in at lunch.

So far (according to our scale, official weigh-in is Saturday), I've lost 6 lbs and Brent has lost 16. No fair. Lol. Looking forward to our skinny selves for this summer :-) You'll probably start seeing more pictures of us again.

I've been feeling awful. Pretty sure I caught something from one of the kids. Not sure what I've got but hoping I don't pass it on to Brent or back to the kids. I get really tired of these 9 month long bouts with illness. That will stop when they're in "real" school, right? Sigh.

Ideal Protein

So now we're trying to make a serious push to lose weight. Brent met a doc who owns a spa in Friendswood called Divinity Med Spa www.divinitymedspa.com. They have a program called Ideal Protein that we started on Friday, February 24th. We've already lost a little weight (our next weigh-in will be this Saturday).

The Plan
We went to the spa to weigh in and get our starter kits. Their machine said Brent needed to lose about 40 lbs and for me it said 60. Truly, my goal is 50 cause then I'll be back in the 140s. If I lost 60 I'd be back to high school weight, which could be scary looking. Side note: Did you see Angelina Jolie at the Oscars? She looked awful!! The kits they give you have two weeks worth of protein food mixes/bars/drinks, a few supplements including a multivitamin, a shaker to mix the foods/drinks, and a water bottle. They also give you packets of information to help you plan out your meals and such.

So each day you are allowed to have 3 or 4 Ideal Protein (IP) foods. There are restrictions on some things, like you can only have one bar a day. But one of those counts as your meat you have with dinner. So on a typical day for me so far, I've had a drink mix with breakfast, a drink mix with lunch, a bar for snack, and then our dinner. For breakfast, you just have one IP food, a multivitamin and supplement, and you can have coffee with splenda. For lunch, you get one IP food, and 2 cups of vegetables. There are more restrictions here. For example, I can't eat my favorite veggie in the whole world: corn. For snack, you get one IP food and a supplement. For dinner, you get 5 - 7 oz (I think that's the size) of a lean meat like pork tenderloin for example. You also get two more cups of vegetables, the multivitamin, and a supplement. There are restrictions on sauces but there is a brand of salad dressing and sauces that is fat free, calorie free, and sugar free that is allowed called Walden Farms. I've had the Balsamic Vinaigrette and the BBQ Sauce so far and they're awesome. You can find them at HEB.

The Science
You can read all about it at www.trantiendiet.com. It was created by a Vietnamese French doctor who specialized in diseases of the colon. Truly, the program just makes sense. And the appealing thing about it vs Weight Watchers (which I was successful on) is that it teaches you how to eat. The doc's main assertion is that if you are eating a balanced diet then you are not gaining weight but you are also not losing it. Your body burns sugars first and then fats, so you have to eliminate all sugars in order to be able to burn fat. After you've lost 90% of the weight you want to lose, you then go into the maintenance phase. Here you learn when you eat food A, you can't eat food B, but you can eat food C.

What This Means for Me
This is exactly the kind of thing I need. Cause I honestly can't say I know that formula. If I did, I wouldn't be at such an awful weight. I need to do this for so many reasons. I need it for my Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis. I need it for our kids so we can be good examples. I need it for me on many emotional levels. It's been tough, but I'm excited to see what this will do for us. I think it's a brilliant plan and even though it'll make social events tough for a while, I'm willing to make those sacrifices now so that I'll be here for as long as I need to be for my family and friends.