BrandNewAmy

I’m honestly not sure what the draw is to blogging for me. It definitely isn’t the “money” as I pretty much don’t have any followers (and if I do, I thank you!) and literally have ZERO sponsors but I think for me it is a form of journaling and that may be the draw. Last night as I was winding down from the day, I decided to give WW another try. I’d been paying for their services for awhile and when I “work the program” I have a lot of success. However, I’ve been avoiding the program for about an month and have had no success...go figure. My goal is to give WW one more month, follow it as best as I can, and reevaluate my situation then. I’m choosing to do the Purple Plan because I feel like that is the best one for me, at the moment. Right now I need more zero point options and this plan has the most. I preplanned breakfast and lunch, both zero points, which leaves me with 16 points for dinner. My goal is to only use 12 so that 4 will carry over giving me a little bumper for my upcoming...

Here we go...again. I've tried WW (formerly known as Weight Watchers) over and over and over again. July 28, 2018 I committed to starting again and taking it seriously. By January 1, 2019, I was down 15 lbs. from July and 20 lbs. over all. I made it through the holidays but unfortunately, I didn't make it through the new year. My will came crashing down and the weight is slowly going back on. Well, I've decided to take to blogging again hoping to find my will and motivation and get back up again. Here I go!!!

I have a clean slate! Well, kind of. Yesterday I walked back through the doors of Weight Watchers and decided to ask for a clean slate. I missed the last three weekends and decided that yesterday was going to be a very sad day for me in terms of weighing in. So, I walked in, told the receptionist that I was "starting over" and that is what I did! She deleted my previous history from the computer and I'm acting like a new member. So...my new starting weight is 161.6 lbs. and I'm going forward from there. I can do this. I have a good feeling about this. It's all on my shoulders but I really need to lose some weight this summer and I'd love to see goal by September 5th. Technically, it's "only" 20.6 lbs. but back when I was about 5 lbs. from goal, I thought I had it. Apparently I did not. (Insert sad face here.) There are 15 weeks between now and September 5th. There is a holiday on Monday (cookout at home...I've got this!) and a holiday July 4t...

My FitBit Zip bit the dust last week after less than six months of ownership. I bought it back in December and already needed a new battery in March. Kind of a huge strike in my book seeing as how the website said they should last six months on a battery. No biggie, stuff happens. Could have been a bad battery. Anyhoo...fast forward to this month (last Thursday to be exact) when I ended my day with 728 steps. Really? Hmmm...seems a little odd since I can get more steps than that sleep walking in the middle of the night!! So, I emailed the company and explained to them what happened. After troubleshooting a couple of things (including a new battery) they decided to mail me a new FitBit Zip. Guess what arrived today?! Yep, my new FitBit Zip! Since I went a few days without adding up some points, I decided to jump on the treadmill and make up for some lost time. My daughters decided that it was too nice out to walk indoors so we took it to the street. It was nice walking with my two ...

I have been on a roller coaster this past school year and I cannot get my act together. My motivation is null. I know that in order to truly get my life in order, it has to come from within. Unfortunately I cannot seem to find that internal motivation. It is so frustrating. I've missed my last two WW meetings due to other commitments and I know that is half my battle. The other have is definitely my lack of motivation. I need to change that. Where do I begin? Here. WHY do I want to lose weight? GOOD HEALTH: My cholesterol keeps creeping up on me. My latest overall score? 234. That is the highest it has been and I know that with diet and exercise I can drop that number WAY down. MY DAUGHTERS: My husband and I are both overweight. We were not always this way but after we graduated from high school and started making bad choices, the weight crept on and hasn't left. I don't want my daughters to follow in our footsteps. I want them to learn good eating and exercise habi...

Why is weight loss so freakin' difficult?! I have such good intentions, I create goals, I go to my WW meetings each week, why can't I stay on the wagon?! UGH!!! I need to get my head back in the game. This week my leader challenged me to track, track, track! I know that is half the battle for me. So, I need to do it. I'm going to try to track here daily and see how it goes. So, here is day 1: Breakfast -Starbucks Skinny Vanilla Latte (4PPV) Lunch -2 eggs (4PPV) -White Sharp Cheddar Cheese (3PPV) Dinner -2 slices Pizza Hut Large Pan Pizza Cheese (19PPV) -3 Hershey Chocolate Chip Cookie (15PPV) Snack -2 Circus Peanuts (2PPV) TOTAL DAILY PPV:  47 - Yeah, that's impressive. Not. Seriously, at least I tracked it. :( See? What horrible choices I made today!! This has got to stop. I didn't need all of that crap, but I ate it anyway.

Yesterday was another "day one" and in the past I may have patted myself on the back (or not) and moved on. Today I am going to evaluate how I did yesterday, here we go! I did not have my FitBit charged in advance so I lost about a 1/2 day of steps and ended my day with only 3,721 steps. I guess it is better than zero. I stuck to my meal plan! Woohoo!! Here is what I ate: Breakfast: Oatmeal w/1 tsp of turbinado sugar (0 PPV) Lunch: Whole Wheat flatbread pizza with FF shredded cheese (w/1 tsp EVOO), and no salt tomato sauce (w/1 tsp Italian seasoning). (0 PPV) Afternoon Snack: Starbucks Venti Iced Skinny Vanilla Latte (0 PPV - I LOVE Simply Filling!) Dinner: 93% Lean Ground Beef Burger on a Whole Wheat sandwich thin, FF sharp cheddar slice, homemade sweet potato fries (w/1 tsp EVOO). (0 PPV) Evening Snack: Flatout Fold It, FF ricotta cheese, frozen blueberries, 1 tsp turbinado sugar, sprinkle of cinnamon (0 PPV) I drank 75 oz. of water! Yay me! I did not earn my 2 ...

Well, I fell off the blogging wagon, again, but I'm back on! Today marks a new beginning for me (again) so I am going to document it here. I have gone to WW every single week this summer and have been fighting with the same 2 lbs. UGH! On June 14th (the beginning of my summer) I weighed in at 149.8 lbs. Yesterday (the end of my summer) I weighed in at 151.4 lbs. I am very disappointed with myself. Maybe I shouldn't be, after all I'm not up 10 lbs. but I really was hoping to be down 10 lbs. But enough sad talk, here are my next steps and goals!! My main goal is to lose 21.4 lbs. bringing me down to 130 lbs. I want to accomplish this by January 25, 2015 - my 42nd birthday! Here are my mini goals: 5 lbs. down (146.4 lbs.) by October 4th 10 lbs. down (141.4 lbs) by November 15th 15 lbs. down (136.4 lbs) by December 27th 20 lbs. down (131.4 lbs) by January 24th Well, that still gives me 1.4 lbs. to lose but you never know! I tried to keep my goal at 5 lbs. every 6 wee...

Well, last month I wrote about falling off the blogging wagon. Looks like I've taken a little tumble off the weight loss wagon as well. I have really been struggling with losing weight and I know it is all my fault. I've stopped saying "no" to candy bars, bags of chips, and lunches/dinners out. I've stopped planning, stopped tracking, and started saying "Oh, I can get back on track tomorrow." Apparently that isn't true. I've been lying to myself. I'm down a pant size but won't stay here if I continue to lie to myself. I'm not being fair. This isn't right. Today, I begin again. Not tomorrow.

I'm equal opportunity so Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms of human babies and fur babies! You are all hard workers!!

No! I'm not off the weight loss wagon, I just seem to have fallen off the blogging wagon! I get why blogging is a full-time job for some people! Wow! Anyhoo...I had a couple of weeks where I had gains and I think they depressed me enough that I didn't want to face the blog. I've turned that around and I'm back down so I'm back to blogging! Here are my current stats: Starting Weight: 169.4 lbs. Current Weight: 148.4 lbs. Current Week: -0.8 lbs. Total Weight Loss: 21.0 lbs. Also, decided to add (very brave of me) my Weight Watchers stats: And finally...I took this "selfie" of my daughter and I today and I really like how it captured my weight loss in my face. So excited about this! On that note. I am signing off and going to sleep! Here's to a better week than the last!

So, I decided to create a chart of my weight loss. Not sure how often I will update it but it is nice to look at from time-to-time! I started my journey in January of 2012 and re-started in January of 2014. I originally lost about 20 lbs. and managed to keep 10 off over the course of two years so I should be pretty excited. I am, sort of. But I also wonder where I'd be today had I continued the journey. Really hoping I can keep it up this time around! Date Weight Change Total 1/22/2012 169.4 0.00 0.00 1/4/2014 159.2 -10.20 -10.20 1/11/2014 155.6 -3.60 -13.80 1/18/2014 155.2 -0.40 -14.20 1/25/2014 154.2 -1.00 -15.20 2/1/2014 153.8 -0.40 -15.60 2/8/2014 155.4 1.60 -14.00 2/15/2014 150.6 -4.80 -18.80 2/22/2014 149.6 -1.00 -19.80 3/1/2014 150.6 1.00 -18.80 3/8/2014 149.8 -0.80 -19.60 3/15/2014 148.8 -1.00 -20.60

Woohoo! I lost another pound this week! I wasn't sure it was going to happen for me as I had a really rough week at work (long nights, lots of temptations lying around!) but apparently I did something right. I am still under 150 and it feels great! I'm now down 20.6 overall but 10.4 since recommitting to WW in January! Starting Weight: 169.4 lbs. Current Weight: 148.8 lbs. Current Week: -1.0 lbs. Total Weight Loss: 20.6 lbs. I'm also reevaluating my reward system. I currently have a bit of a willy-nilly system but am thinking I want to do something like a Pandora bracelet. Maybe the bracelet for my first 5lbs. and then a charm for each additional. So far I've earned the bracelet and 3 charms...thoughts??

Today I ran to Costco and bought some foods that are WW Simply Filling friendly. I'm excited to taste them all! Here is a rundown of what I picked up: The Power Greens were on a recommendation by a friend for my smoothies! They include baby kale, chard and spinach. Love adding greens to my smoothies!!! Can't wait to make one tomorrow.

Here we go again! Back under 150!! Woohoo! Let's hope it stays that way! Starting Weight: 169.4 lbs. Current Weight: 149.8 lbs. Current Week: -0.8 lbs. Total Weight Loss: 19.6 lbs.

Yeah, that was said with total sarcasm! UGH! Really??? I gained back the pound I lost last week. So freakin' fantastic! Anyhoo...here are my WI stats from yesterday. I don't feel like posting anything else right now. {Insert grumpy face here!} Starting Weight: 169.4 lbs. Current Weight: 150.6 lbs. Current Week: +1.0 lbs. Total Weight Loss: 18.8 lbs.

Woohoo! I broke 150 lbs.!!! Okay, maybe not by much...but still, I'm under 150!!! I didn't quite make my 10# mark but next week, for sure! This has been a great week. I'm so, so proud of myself. I was talking to a friend, who shall remain nameless for now, and she and I talked about the fact that I have very little variety in my meals (at least in terms of breakfast and lunch) and while it doesn't work for everyone, I'm making it work for me. For breakfast, I usually have a smoothie or a latte. At snack, I have fruit or veggies. Then I eat Taco Soup every work day for lunch. I usually plan dinner at the last minute but if I am "stuck" for something to eat, I have oatmeal (I LOVE oatmeal). It is my "emergency" food! LOL The weekends are a little less structured for me, but so far I'm doing alright. If I hit a rut, then I'll mix things up but I don't want to toss something new into the mix if what I'm doing works! I know some people...

I am SO excited!! After a crappy WI last week, I had an awesome WI this week!! As I mentioned last week, I decided to give Simply Filling a shot and see how it goes. Well...I met success this week and a HUGE success at that!!! Woohoo!! I am so proud of myself. I took lunch to work daily, I made sure I had plenty of snacks on hand, and I did allow myself a couple treats from time-to-time. Last night was a rough night for me. I wasn't starving, but I had some monster cravings and I think it was because I knew that I had an important (to me) weigh in today. It definitely paid off to be in control and stay in control!! Here are my results... Starting Weight: 169.4 lbs. Current Weight: 150.6 lbs. Current Week: -4.8 lbs. Total Weight Loss: 18.8 lbs. So, now I've hit my 5% goal (the new one, anyway!). My reward is a new water bottle/tumbler or coffee mug. Hmmm...decisions, decisions!!

Woohoo! Today I hit the grocery store and stocked up on some WW Power Foods! I am set for breakfasts, lunches and snacks!! Dinners may be a little tougher but I think I'll be fine. :) For lunch this week, I made a delicious Taco Soup that I found on Brooke: Not On A Diet . She had FABULOUS success on Weight Watchers and I now consider her one of my heroes!! My only change to the soup was that I added a pound of ground turkey so it looks more like a chili than a soup. Nonetheless it is soup-er yummy and I highly recommend that you scoot over to Brooke's site and try it out!! For the rest of my meals and snacks, I purchased some lite breads, 94% fat free popcorn, frozen fruits, yogurt, etc. So excited to be able to eat without counting points!! I think I actually ate less the last two days than I normally would! Woot! Woot! So...Facebook. I have a private, personal account that I use to keep up with old and new friends. I love to follow other bloggers and finally decided ...

Yuck. I gained. It sucks. There isn't anything I can do about it EXCEPT pick myself up, brush myself off, and keep trying! Today I decided to give the WW Simply Filling technique a try. I used their CORE program way back when it first came out and I actually found that I loved it! It was easy to do and I didn't feel deprived. Crossing my fingers it works again!! Today I am spending time searching the internet for good ideas from other bloggers and creating my menu for the week as well as a shopping list. Can't wait to get started!! The best part about SF? I can drink my Starbucks and not count the points!! Woohoo!! Starting Weight: 169.4 lbs. Current Weight: 155.4 lbs. Current Week: +1.6 lbs. Total Weight Loss: 14 lbs. I do have to say that I am proud of myself for one thing. I went to my meeting today. I knew I was going to gain. I had a HORRIBLE week. I could have stayed in bed this  morning  and skipped my meeting, but I knew better. I'm glad I went. I feel bette...