Happy Losing Only a Little

 Healthy Eating, Healthy Living, Weight Loss  No Responses »
Nov 182011
 

SunflowersWeight-wise this was a mixed week. I didn’t eat very healthy, but I still managed to lost .2 pounds. Yay!

I’m not sure how they got there, but somehow some super sweet and fatty junk food made its way into our cabinet. Normally, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but we slacked off this week and hadn’t done any healthy shopping for “snacks,” which usually consists of fruits, nuts and things like that. I was really hungry one night and saw the junk food and ate a package. Then, I did it again…two more times.

We also had pizza during the week, and I ate a lot. On top of that I didn’t walk because it rained almost everyday.

When I got on the scale, I was surprised to see that I had managed to lose something. I felt guilty about the junk I ate, but then I felt a little better that I was still able to lose something. This coming week will be different. I can’t slack off again.

I’ll eat better and will hopefully have a better weight loss report next week.

 Posted by Mark at 4:25 pm  Tagged with: ,

The Power Is Back!

 Healthy Eating, Healthy Living, Weight Loss  No Responses »
Nov 072011
 

Telephone PoleAfter over 5 days of living without electricity, our power was restored. For those not from New England, we were hit with a freak snow storm on October 29-30 that dumped a foot of snow on Connecticut and over 30 inches in parts of New Hampshire and other states. It was really bad because the leaves were still on the trees, and the weight of the heavy, wet snow caused tree limbs to break and take out power lines, knocking out the electricity to over 3 million people along the east coast and over 800,000 in Connecticut.

We were fortunate because we had purchased a small generator before Hurricane Irene hit earlier this year and could keep the food in our fridge cold, but we couldn’t cook and only had one light to live by. I knew this would be a challenge to my Weight Watchers weight loss and healthy eating plan, but we made do. Without a computer or internet, I had no way to track my food online, so I guessed at the amount of total points I was eating. Yes, I could have written things down and done it manually, but that would have been a pain and taken a lot of time, which I didn’t have a lot of since I had to drive around and find an open gas station that didn’t have an hour long wait to buy gas.

Turns out I ended up doing okay and lost a total of 1.6 pounds, not bad considering we ate out a couple times, once at a fast food burger joint where I stuffed myself with fatty burgers. For lunch I ate nitrate free turkey and ham sandwich meat, yogurt and salads. For dinner we ate salads and other foods that didn’t require cooking. The first couple days without power were fun, but I was thankful when it came back on.

What did I learn from this? I learned that because I have eaten eating healthy for a couple months, I knew what to buy even though I couldn’t track the foods I was eating. I learned that it still comes down to portion control and choosing carefully. I was tempted to give up and eat out more than we did, but I knew I’d regret it in the end, and I’m so glad I listened to my heart and held strong because I was delighted when I got on the scale on weigh-in day and saw a loss.

I’m not saying that snacking is bad (see my post about splurging once in awhile), but if you get discouraged and want to give up, be strong and think of the long term rewards. They far outweigh the short term satisfaction of giving into temptation.

 Posted by Mark at 7:57 am  Tagged with: ,

Splurge Once In Awhile

 Healthy Living, Weight Loss  No Responses »
Oct 242011
 

Strawberry ShortcakeHave you ever gone out to eat with friends or family and gotten upset because everything is either too high in points or calories and something you shouldn’t eat?

I have and it can be discouraging seeing others enjoying themselves, eating a large meal while you much away on a salad. My personal feeling is that once in awhile you should splurge and treat yourself to something special. For every person, this will probably be something different. For some it could be a big, juicy cheeseburger, and for others it could be some ice cream or soda.

The good thing for those of us on Weight Watchers, is that we’re given 49 bonus points to use however and for whatever we want. I’ll usually save mine and use them to eat pizza or to get a special drink from Starbucks or something like that. At work, if its someone’s birthday, we’ll order food to be delivered, and I can splurge and eat with everyone else.

The point is that it’s important to treat yourself to something extra once in awhile. If not, it’s easy to get burned out and frustrated by having to eat the same things over and over and not enjoying something extra now and then.

 Posted by Mark at 7:52 pm  Tagged with:

You Can Do It!

 Healthy Eating, Healthy Living, Weight Loss  No Responses »
Oct 212011
 

You Can Do It!Last week was a bad week when I got on the scale and had gained weight, but I put it behind me and looked forward, which brings me to my thoughts for today. The key is that to lose weight, you really have to want it.

Yes, it’s easy to say you want it, but if you don’t put your desires into action, it’s not going to happen. I don’t mean you have to do anything crazy, but you have to be aware of what you’re doing and eating. Last week, for instance, I realized I didn’t eat right and wasn’t really thinking about losing weight, but this week I was very conscience of everything I ate, which helped me turn my 1.2 pound gain into a 3 pound loss this week.

When planning what to eat, I thought about it carefully. If I had 6 Weight Watchers points remaining for the day on, I had to decide what I wanted to eat. I could have a handful of candy, or I could have a baby spinach and lettuce salad with onions, peppers, walnuts and a light dressing, or a bowl of oatmeal, with skim milk and a teaspoon of brown sugar.

Candy is very tasty, but to me nuts are as well, so the salad would be a healthier option than candy. The oatmeal is also a good option because it’s filling, and it with a little brown sugar on top, it would be satisfy that desire to have something sweet.

To lose weight, I’m not saying to take drastic or crazy measures but be aware of what you’re eating and doing. Make conscience decisions to eat carefully.

That goes for exercise too. When I get home from work I’m very tired and often want to sit down and loaf on the couch, but I know that’s not going to help me lose weight and get in shape. This is one area that I need to work on because I don’t really like to exercise, but I know I need to do it. The question is how bad do I want it?

In my mind I want it, but I have to put my desires into action, which is something I’m going to do starting tonight. Taking a walk with my wife and dog in the evening can be relaxing. It’s a good way for us to bond. We can talk, share things and be together without being distracted by things going on at home, plus we get to see things we’ve noticed before while driving past them at 30 miles per hour.

So, that’s my challenge for the next week, to be more aware of what I’m eating and doing and to put my desires into action. What challenges are you working on?

 Posted by Mark at 7:45 pm  Tagged with: ,

I Gained Weight!

 Healthy Living, Weight Loss  No Responses »
Oct 202011
 

Don't Get Disouraged!This was written on October 14th and was the main reason that I decided to start this site, a place where people can share ideas and goals in their quest to lose weight and get in shape.

Well, it happened. After nearly 16 consecutive weeks of losing weight, I gained 1.2 pounds. When I got on the scale today, I was devastated. “How can this be?” I thought. We had gone on a long bike ride this past weekend and hiked over 2 miles. I was expecting a big loss, not a gain.

The more I thought about it, the more it bothered me, so I started trying to figure out what changes I could make so it doesn’t happen again. One thing quickly stood out. Since June, when we started eating healthier, we haven’t brought any junk food into the house, but this past week we bought a couple boxes of cookies and some ice cream. I didn’t eat the ice cream, but I did eat some cookies, not a lot but more than one serving.

It was then that my wife reminded me of how often we had eaten out. One day we went out for burgers. Another day we ordered Chinese and had it delivered. There was a geocaching event at a Mexican restaurant another day, and we ate there, and then we had the Chinese left overs another day. That’s why I gained weight, not from eating a few cookies one night after work.

One thing I like about Weight Watchers is that you have a certain number of points available to use each day, and then you have bonus points that can be used however you want during the week. Some people use a few of their bonus points each day, and others use them all at once, which is what I usually do. Once a week we go out to dinner, and I’ll use my bonus points to get something that I normally wouldn’t have enough points to eat.

I probably would have been fine with any of those meals by themselves, but all of them together used way more points than I had available, even when using my bonus points. It all comes down to “if you eat more than you burn, you’re going to gain weight.”

When I got on the scale earlier today, I was upset, but my sister gave me some good advice. She said that thinking about it and dwelling on it isn’t going to do me any good. What’s done is done, and I need to put it behind me. Yes, I need to learn from it, but thinking about it in a bad way won’t help.

So, that’s what I’m doing. I’m looking ahead, not dwelling on the past and thinking about what I can do differently. One thing I can do better is to plan a variety of meals to eat so that we don’t get home from work and have no idea what we want to eat, only to end up ordering out or going to a restaurant. Another idea is to cook a larger meal one day so that we have left overs for lunch or dinner the following day. That way we’re not having to cook a big meal each night.

I’m curious what you do to keep on track so you don’t end up eating out all the time?

 Posted by Mark at 7:37 pm

Weight Watchers

 Healthy Living, Weight Loss  No Responses »
Oct 202011
 

ScaleIn a previous post I mentioned that I had use Weight Watchers Online for Men, and I wanted to talk about that and explain why I like it.

For those not familiar with the Weight Watchers system, they try to keep it simple by using a proprietary format that determines how many points a certain food has based on the amount of fat, carbohydrates, fiber and protein it contains. For me, this makes it real easy to keep track of my progress.

Plus, Weight Watchers is designed so you don’t feel hungry. When you start the program, your daily points are determined by your current weight, and as you lose weight, your allotted points decrease, but it’s never a drastic amount that leaves you feeling hungry. If you’re allowed 38 points one week and the next, 37, it’s not a huge difference. If you had to go from 38 to 30, that would be huge and leave you starving, which isn’t good.

I like to think of it as stairs. If you’re on the second floor of a building and want to go down to the first floor and jumped down 8 to 10 feet, you’d get hurt, but if you go down 10 steps, 1 at at time, you hardly notice you’re changing elevation. That’s how Weight Watchers is. As you continue with the program, you barely realize you’re eating less food as the weeks go by.

Another cool thing about Weight Watchers is that in addition to your daily allotted points is your bonus points. Each person every week is given 49 bonus points that can be used however you want. Some people use 7 points extra a day to eat a little bit more, and others save them up and then go out to eat. Whatever you want; it doesn’t matter. For me, I usually use them once a week to go out and have a nice, sit down dinner and eat something I normally wouldn’t be able to.

Because I’m using the online version, I track everything I eat online, which makes it real easy to check my status and know how many points I have renaming for the day, so I better decide what I want to eat.

The Weight Watchers database of predefined foods is very large, but if I eat something that’s not in there, it’s not a big deal. I can quickly and easily calculate how many points the food is either add it as a one time “quick add” or add it to the database so that it’ll be available for me to add if I ever eat it again.

This is the feature I love the most because it’s so easy. In the past I had tried various calorie counting sites online where I track the foods and calories I eat, but they were confusing and not easy for me to use. For instance, with Weight Watchers, if I eat a yogurt that’s not in the database, I just calculate the points and add it in a quick add, but with the other sites, if a food wasn’t in the database, I had to find the closest one and then adjust the quantity I ate to get the calories to equal what I really ate.

With the yogurt for instance, say I ate one that was 110 calories, but the closest yogurt in the database was 80 calories, I had to say I ate 1.375 servings of the 80 calorie yogurt to get 110 calories. To make things even more confusing, the same exact food could be listed multiple times with different calorie amounts for each listing.

With Weight Watchers, none of that is an issue because all that matters is how many points I ate.
Plus, there’s a great iPhone app that makes looking up foods while on the go super easy. The app is so powerful that my sister uses it more than the full web version.

If you have any questions about Weight Watchers, please let me know. I’ve been using it for awhile and would love to explain more about it.

 Posted by Mark at 7:25 pm  Tagged with:

A Brief History

 Geocaching, Healthy Eating, Healthy Living, Photography, Recreation, Weight Loss  No Responses »
Oct 202011
 

WatchThis past June I realized I needed to lose weight, and, after talking to my sister, I signed up for Weight Watchers Online for Men. I’m in my 40s, stand 5′ 3″ tall and weighed 198 pounds. People who saw me said I didn’t look fat, but the truth is I was obese.

Like many people wanting to lose weight, I had tried a lot of different things, but nothing seemed to work. I had the best success with an online calorie tracking program, but it was difficult to use. When my sister suggested Weight Watchers, I figured it was worth trying, and I’m so glad I did. I love it! Since the middle of June I’ve lost 30 pounds. I still have more to go, but I’m making progress towards my goal.

A lot of people have asked how I’ve done it, and it all comes down to eating fewer calories than you burn. For me, that meant I needed to to stop drinking soda and start drinking water. In the past it wasn’t uncommon for me to drink 3 or 4 cans of soda a day and at night have a “snack” of 3 or 4 bowls of sugary cereal. Yikes!

Between breakfast, lunch and dinner, we’d eat out several times per week, but we stopped that and now eat out just once or twice a week for a special treat. I’ll talk more about giving yourself special treats as rewards for sticking to your goal in a future post.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope my site gives you inspiration to lose weight, take photos and pursue your goals and dreams, and if you have any advice to share, please feel free to reply to any of my posts or contact me directly.

Thanks!

 Posted by Mark at 5:52 pm  Tagged with:
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