A Christmas Miracle

Well folks, this isn’t exactly a miracle but yesterday I gave myself the best gift that one could ever ask for…the gift of health.

As of yesterday, December 23rd 2010 I became a Lifetime member at Weight Watchers!!

To reach Lifetime I had to achieve my weight loss goal (which I did & the post about that is here) and then maintain that weight for 6 weeks.  During the maintenance period I went up and down a few lbs but I always stayed below my goal weight. 

As of yesterday I have lost a total of 99.6 lbs!!!! 

Now I only have to weigh-in once a month and as long as I am not 2 lbs over my goal weight I will no longer have to pay for meetings. Nice!

I can’t believe I am now a Lifetime member of Weight Watchers.  I never really dreamt about this until a few months ago and it still seems all so surreal to me.  I know though that I have worked really, REALLY hard for this and I deserve this accomplishment!!

I’ve been on the weight loss journey now for 2 years and I’d be lying if I said that I’m not somewhat relieved to not have to focus on the “weight loss” part as much.  This doesn’t mean that I stop doing what I’ve been doing though.  I *NEVER* want to go back to the “bigger” me or partake in those behaviors again!  I still have to make healthy choices and track my food.  I have been using all these amazing tools that Weight Watchers has provided me with and I plan to continue using them for the rest of my life! 

But, I look forward to the little things like maybe not having to worry about retaining so much water on Thursdays or only having really light meals so the scale doesn’t blow up or anything. I would say that this means I can drink beer on Wednesday nights now but lets be honest, it never stopped me in the first place.  But I guess this means I can drink at lunch on Thursday’s now

Frankie came to my meeting to see me get my award.  I can’t even begin to describe how happy that made me.  It really meant a lot to me that he came.  Afterwards we went out to Applebee’s to have a couple beers and split some appetizers.  Here I am with my very first beer as a Lifetime member…

I don’t know if I’m going to drink that beer, or going to Hulk smash it & kill someone…what’s with my face?!?!

And here are some photos of me from Tuesday night at the bar (Frank plays darts).  Rocking the skinny jeans and my new boots….I’ll have more pictures of the boots later.

 

I hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!  I leave you with a picture of my fabulous Christmas tree…

What did you ask Santa for??

Oooh Yeah, Shake it!

The conversation started like this….


Mom- “I saw one of those Shake Weight thingy’s at the store. You know, the thing in that video that you guys were watching in the office, on that South Park episode.”
Me- “Oh yeah…that shit was funny.”
Mom- “Yeah I almost bought it for you, as a joke of course.”
Me- “I would TOTALLY rock the Shake Weight if you bought me one.”

Fast forward a couple of weeks and this puts us in the middle of Walmart. My mom had some things she had to pick up there and she wanted to get out of the house & walk around a bit. She still isn’t cleared to drive or anything so I took her there and figured I could pick up a few Christmas gifts myself.

We are walking by the “fitness” section when all of a sudden she yells…”THERE IT IS!” Turns the cart around like Nascar thunder and throws a Shake Weight into the cart…

So ladies and gentleman, the Shake Weight training has begun!

Now, I understand that this product is most likely a gimmick and the odds of it working might be slim to none, but what do I have to lose by trying right?? Nothing but my jiggly arm flab people!! Plus, I didn’t have to spend my hard earned $20 on it so I’m not really losing out in that department.

According to the makers of this product, with a 6 minute a day workout you will see an amazing difference in your arms, shoulders and chest. It comes with a nifty little 6 minute DVD that you just pop in and do real quickly.

So far I’ve done it three times and while it’s not super difficult (for someone who exercises regularly), I can definitely feel the burn. It’s funny because after doing it the first day which was Sunday, I thought for sure that the next morning my arms would be sore but actually it was my CORE that was killing me!! When I did the 6 minutes the second day, it was definitely a little bit more painful.

I’m giving it a month. Sunday, December 12th was my first day and I took measurements of my biceps and did a flabby check. This means of course moving my arm back and forth and watching the jiggle ripple around…this is no scientific measurement so you will just have to take my word on if it changes or not.

Now I’ve read all the reviews about how this is just a piece of trash & there are much better arm exercises you can do. I’m aware of this. I don’t think this measly little 2 ½ pound weight is going to give me Michele Obama arms. BUT…I own dumbbells people and you know how often I pick them up?? Barely ever. If you’ve been following me for a while now you know that I hate my arms but I can never seem to get stuck on a regime of working on them. Well the Shake Weight makes me WANT to work on my arms. So at the very least, maybe it will lead to me doing more and more upper body work.  Or, if I am lucky, I will be as happy as this guy is....

So we will see in a month!! And who knows…if there are any good results, maybe I'll buy one of these puppies and we can have a little giveaway and one of you lucky readers can make ridiculous face and noises too!

There’s a big part of me that wants to make my own instructional video, with the ooooh and aaaah’s and everything. I mean, look at how happy I already am...

Don’t fear the food!

I feel like its been forever since I posted last.  I guess in a way it has been. 

First off, thank you to everyone for the well wishes and support for my moms surgery.  I’m happy to report that the surgery went well and she was released from the hospital last Saturday.  Basically my days since then have been filled with taking care of her and helping her out around her house & with her doggie.  All while doing that I’ve had to try to keep up at work and take care of my own household.  This has left very little “chill” time, let alone time to blog.  But I’m trying to get back into the swing of things.

These past two weeks have brought about big changes in the Weight Watcher world.  I know I posted quickly about preparing ourselves for change and well folks, the change is here!!

I originally planned to do a big ole’ post about how amazing the new Point Plus plan is.  A list of its pro’s and con’s and all of that jazz.  But with it being about two weeks out, there are already NUMEROUS blog posts out there telling you all about that…So…I’ve been lurking.

I’ve been lurking back these past two weeks.  Following the Points Plus program and kind of keeping to myself about how I think it’s working.  I’ve been reading others blogs, tweets and conversations with each other.  I’ve been listening to the members at my Weight Watcher meeting and I listen to a lady stop me in the middle of the supermarket to express her fears about the new program.

Fear…that’s a word a hear a lot.

But I also hear another word…Joy. 

Can those two words possibly coexist within the same program??  Of course they can!!  

Think about the first time you tried something…was there fear present??  Most likely, yes.  Even if you are someone who claims to fear little in life, there is always that sense of “oh, but what if” lying in there somewhere.  It’s completely normal and I think that’s what helps to fuel our drive and passion. 

The lady in the supermarket said to me “But Suzi, I’m too scared to eat! The points are so much higher!”  I was in a rush to get back to my mother so I just kind of listened to her and nodded but later on that night I really got thinking about what she said.  Because she wasn’t the first person I heard that from.  When I first put that Weight Watcher bagel and Weight Watcher Cream Cheese into my Points Plus tracker, I wanted to cry.  A favorite breakfast of mine that was always 3 points was now 6.  How is that NOT scary??

Last week I was sure I was going to gain.  I was feeling it all week and my scale at home was being stubborn.  Come Tuesday night I was really feeling defeated.  It was the first full week on the new Points Plus program and already I was hearing about everyone having great loses.  Now technically, I shouldn’t be worrying about having a loss since I am in maintenance, but I didn’t want to gain! (I was down 1.6, putting me at my lowest ever of 96.6 lbs lost...weighing in at 155.4)  So I sat back and I lurked on myself…

Was I really eating more??  Was I really drinking more??  Sure, I was over my points everyday but as we all know, that was due to my beer intake…but was I really drinking MORE beer?  NO!  Was I really eating MORE than I normally have been? NO!  Sure, my bagel & cream cheese breakfast is more points, but I am ALLOWED more points.  Sure, my beer is more points, but I’m still drinking the same amount now as I have these past 2 years while losing 96+ lbs. 

The beer is still beer.  Weight Watchers can but 100 Points Plus on a 12 ounce can (oh god, please don’t!) but unless the fine folks over at Anheuser Busch change the actual nutritional values of Bud 55…I should not fear them!

I’m not just talking about the increase of alcohol here guys…I’m talking about looking at the big picture.  If you are feeling fear, sit back and lurk on yourself.  Look over your tracker (you better be tracking!), take a look at your activity, think about your habits…what can you change??  What do you need to change?? 

For me…I noticed that I was dependent on a lot of 100 calorie snacks and 1 point breads.  I wasn’t adding nearly enough fruits and vegetables into my diet because I didn’t want to “waste” points on them.  Now I’ve found myself swapping out those nutrition-less snacks for the fruits I’ve always loved…and I’m trying new fruits!! (I will post about that later!)

I still eat bread…I still have a bag of 100 cal popcorn (was 1 point, is now 3 points plus) as a snack a few times a week…I still have 2 slices of Wonder SmartWhite bread for lunch…I still have my whole grain flat out wheat wraps… And I have them without fear, because I realize that I’m not eating them any MORE than I did before.  Just because my bagel & cream cheese is now 6, doesn’t mean I’m going to gain 10 lbs.  You don’t have to give up the things you love or the staples you are used to (hello sandwich thins).  You just have to track them & make the rest of your day work around them.  

You have to trust Weight Watchers!  You have to put your fears into their hands and know that they would not steer you wrong!  You have to not only look at the program, but look at yourself and see that you know what are good decisions and what are bad.  And all you can do is hope that you make the good one 90% of the time.

Sorry this post got kind of long.  And I’m sorry if it was boring…especially for you non Weight Watchers.  I promise to brighten the mood up this week and all my posts wont be just about the new Weight Watchers program.  I have some exciting things to share…such as a few items I got this week as early Christmas gifts .  So I promise there will be pictures on this blog again soon. 

Thanks for your patience with me and thanks for being here!!  If you guys haven't gotten my Christmas present yet, that’s ok.  You still have a couple weeks.