Weekly Weigh-in!

I am very excited about this weigh-in this week because I have reached a total weight loss of 20 pounds!! I have been so emotional about this, it is such a proud moment, a great milestone in my weight loss. 

When I started losing weight seven months ago, I NEVER expected for this to last. I have tried so many diets in the past. I tried and after a few short weeks I would always give up. My weight watchers membership was up to be renewed in January and I decided not to renew it and what happened...I gained back 4 pounds. I knew that I was not going to stand for that and I kept going. I had to re-train myself to not eat for no reason, not to splurge all the time, and  to track every meal. 

I am so glad that I decided to pick back up and not give up because it is so rewarding to see yourself go down a size or two, have to buy new bras because your breasts are getting smaller (Derek didn't love that!) 

It is amazing to look back at photos of yourself and realize how far you have come. It is amazing to hear people tell you how much better you look. It is amazing to look in the mirror and see the me I remember, not the fat version of me that I was so unhappy with. 

 

Left was 3/25/2013 and right was 3/25 2014 

Losing this amount of weight has been a motivator to keep myself going. I really didn't have huge expectations because I honestly would look at the amount of weight I wanted to lose and I would get stressed out and scared and never believe that I could lose that much. I always said I just wanted to lose some, and even if it was just a little bit anything was better than nothing. And that worked for me because I didn't set all this pressure on myself. I took breaks. I had cheats. I spent time screwing up and realizing what I really wanted. But now I am determined to set a goal and achieve it. If I can lose those 20 pounds, I can lose the 15-20 more that I would really like to get back to where I would ultimately like to be. But I also am very happy with where I am now. I have so much more confidence, I am more comfortable in clothes, and that was a huge part of why I was so depressed being overweight, was not finding clothes that fit or look good on me. I am short and I have big boobs and I have extra fat. Not a good combo while clothing shopping!

Jeans are American Eagle Size 10 and Top is a medium in Merona brand which in my opinion runs small so its a bit tight! 

After last week being spring break and eating out 4 times I tried this week to make sure that I ate as clean as possible and I didn't even have a cheat meal. The closest I got was indulging in a fudge round that I bought for the kids at Sam's Club and it was not satisfying at all. 

I made lean ground beef chili with store bought cinnamon rolls and I had 5 @ 60 calories each. 

I made crock pot pork chops which were delicious, with broccoli and a rice side (1/2 cup) all for  300 calories since I only could eat half the meat 

Spaghetti and Turkey meatballs for 300 calories. 

I am that annoying person who is finding it hard to get to my calorie goal for the day. To eat nutritious food it is hard to eat that much! Especially since I have been doing Yoga Inferno so I am trying to eat back half of my calories I burned off there. 

Photo via Amazon

Yoga Inferno is tough but I really like it. I was so sore after the first day, it is definitely a step up in difficulty to Yoga Meltdown. I recommend it though! 

My Fitness Pal VS. Weight Watchers

I have dieted a lot in my life. All the other times in my past I logged my calories both with a site called my-calorie-counter.com and myfitnesspal.com . I on a whim decided to try Weight watchers I honestly can't even remember why I decided to try it maybe a pin I saw about it or something. But anyway, I am used to tracking my food and I find that it is the only way to keep myself on track while watching what I eat and trying to lose weight. 

I signed up for another month of weight watchers in February, and I think that only lasted 2 weeks. I was a little burned out on it I guess, and quite frankly I didn't want to pay $18.95 for logging my food. So I found an app on google play that was $1.99 that is supposed to be like the weight watchers app and log your food just like weight watchers. Well, let me tell you this is not the case. If you follow these apps or sites that say they are the same as weight watchers they are not. There are so many things on there that were really wrong on the points value. Being one weight watchers for 4 months really allowed me to learn the points on a lot of items, and these were not correct. This makes it hard to properly understand your eating habits and if you are eating the correct amount.  

So I stopped using this app and I decided to try myfitnesspal. I have used it before like I said and it is very easy. It is free to use and they have an app that you can log on your smartphone. Win! 

It has been over a month now and I would have to say that I am very pleased with myfitnesspal. You can add friends and use them as encouragement, or go to the community and ask questions. I don't really use these features though, I just get on and track. 

I would say that logging food is very easy and user friendly. I often found that while using weight watchers I had to add a lot of my own foods that took a lot of time, where as Myfitnesspal has a ton of foods in their database in the brands that I use such as Kroger, and Aldi brands. This really saves me time and makes it more likely to track. 

 One of the biggest things that I like on Myfitnesspal vs. weight watchers is that you can see all the specs of your food. Weight watchers just shows you your points and you don't know the sugar, protein, carb, sodium, and fat content that you really need to know to be able to find out what foods work for you as far as weight loss and which ones don't. It is quite an eye opener to see you went over on sodium this day by 1000 mg or something like that, where as with weight watchers you can eat as much sugar or sodium as you want as long as you don't go over your points. With that, as far as weight watchers goes, you can pretty much eat anything as long as you are within your points, which I suppose you can as well with myfitnesspal but they also give you goals day as far as protein, fat, sodium, sugar etc, and that way you are more balanced in your diet. I see a lot of people on instagram who are on weight watchers and they are eating chicken nuggets from McDonald's for 8pp, and in reality, that is so bad for you that even though it is only 8 pp, you really should not be eating it.  

That being said, the flexibility weight watchers was what ultimately got me to participate. I liked the fact that I didn't feel like I had to be deprived and I didn't have to stop eating foods I liked. But I also know quite a bit about food and nutrition and eating healthy and I know what is good for me and what is bad (whether I do it for not is a different story!)

The exercise logging is about the same as weight watchers. I do workout videos and I don't have a heart rate monitor to track how many calories I burn, so I just guess and I don't really know how many calories I burn. I just honestly don't exercise enough to justify buying one right now, but I am not opposed to it in the future if I ever become a gym rat (don't hold your breath!) 

All in all if I had to do it differently, I would have done Weight Watchers to start off with for sure. It was a great transition into weight loss and I had great success on it. It is literally the only weight loss plan I have ever stuck to for more than a few weeks. And I know that a lot of it was the flexibility that it allowed me. But for me now in this phase of my weight loss I want to try to eat leaner, eat cleaner, and get more focused on being healthy more than just eating a certain amount of points even if it's ice cream or pasta. 

I recommend myfitnesspal to people who really want to understand their eating better. I have been logging with myfitnesspal for 37 days straight and since starting, I have lost a total of 8 pounds (my official weigh in is tomorrow ) So I believe that is a big weight loss!

If you have any questions please let me know!

Weekly Weigh in

Yesterday was my weigh in day...Down another 1.4 lbs!

I had to exchange my scale for another because it was giving me different readings every time I stood on it, and it wasn't a vanity issue trust me :) I bought my scale from BBB and highly recommend that if you are going to buy anything of value, a food scale, regular scale, kitchen appliances, go there. You get 20 percent coupons all the time, and they have a very good return/exchange policy. I bought mine in November and came in with box and receipt and they just exchanged it without even looking at my receipt.

This week has been TOUGH. I have had some pretty severe cravings which I know mean that it is my body adjusting to eating healthier, but that doesn't make it less intense. I did really good about managing them, but I did allow myself a little leniency, aka a few oreos ;) 

 Saturday we went out to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. Before that I hadn't eaten out in almost 3 weeks, so that is a non-scale victory for sure! 

I have been saving most of my food pictures because it is obnoxious to post every meal you eat on Instagram...sorry but it is.

 Chicken Cheeddar Bacon Pasta  I usually make a full fat version, but the light one was just as good!! 

 I made these zucchini fries thinking they would be good, NA. Didn't land with me or Derek. He usually can pretty much eat anything even if he doesn't LOVE it, but these, he couldn't and he even likes zucchini.

 Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, and egg whites!

Pork Chops with green beans, and cheesy hasbrown casserole. The recipe made 12 servings, and this is 2 here, and I was stuffed. I ate a serving with my eggs this morning. yum!  114 calories per serving! Not

 Buffalo Chicken. 300 calories per serving. I don't know how to cook breaded chicken in the oven without it being soggy and having the breading fall off. Any suggestions on that? The side is Cheesy Broccoli Quinoa. 159 calories per serving. VERY filling. I only at 1/4 of it, and not all of that chicken.

 

I have been doing yoga meltdown 3 or 4 x a week. I love this workout, but you have heard me rave about it before so I will skip it this time! 

 

Chinese was my cheat meal this week. I have been craving it HARD. I love, love, love some General's Chicken with rice and soy sauce. YUM! I could eat it at every meal. LOL. Kidding, Kind of. 

I feel like ever since I started losing weight I just can't get a pair of jeans to fit me right. I am always in between sizes I feel like. I rarely wear jeans anyway honestly but when I do, I want them to fit. They all are so tight in my waist and so loose in my crotch/let area, and by the end of the day they are really loose. I hate jeans....

I feel like I never have anything to wear. I always feel like something is either too big for too small for me, I just want to feel normal in my clothes! HA! 

It has been almost 3 weeks since I stared logging with my fitness pal over weight watchers, and truthfully the jury is still out. I am still trying to convert things to points in my head. There are pros and cons to both, but when it gets to one month I will do a review of both and see what I decide to continue with. But in my opinion, is is easier to log on my fitness pal than on weight watchers. The way they word their food and don't have all the brands I use makes it more difficult for me, as I have to add a new food constantly, which is not the case with my fitness pal. 

I am at 18 pounds lost now, I can't believe it. I am almost at 20! When I get to 20 my "reward" will be new workout/activegear. The gear I have now is from when I was 175 pounds and even though they may have been to small then, they are stretched out now and too big, so I need new comfy clothes. So that is my motivation to get to 20. 

Weekly Weigh in and updates

I worked really hard this week to get my body into weight loss mode. It was surprisingly easy. I usually shop every 2 weeks on Thursday but I opted to break it up into weeks this time so I could see if that would help me keep fresh produce in the house. It also kept me from loading up on snacky items I didn't need. I reached for the fruit and veggies instead of a ramen or something else I would normally eat.

Some of the things I have been eating lately are:
-turkey wrap on whole wheat tortilla
-reduced fat triscuits with a light laughing cow (aldi brand) cheese wedge
-carrot, celery, and cucumber slices with veggie dip
-Light English muffin breakfast sandwiches (I make ahead and freeze them for easy breakfasts)
-Light Zuppa Toscana
-Lean Gourmet Creamy Rigatoni with Broccoli.
-Lean Pockets Pretzel Crust Jalapeno Chicken (yum)
 -Great value Mountain trail mix. ( I grab a few of these often because I get low blood sugar and need to have protein. )

I know how to lose weight. I know what foods to eat. I am not one of those people who says "I don't know why I'm not losing weight, wah wah wah" If you eat bad, you don't lose weight. For me, it is more of a control thing, you know what you SHOULD do, but what you WANT to do are two different things sometimes.

I have started counting calories with my fitness pal vs. weight watchers this week. I will write a review of what I think after I get a feel of doing calories for a while .

I did Jillian Michaels Yoga Meltdown 3x this week. If you have read my blog for a while you know I have been doing this off and on for years. I love it. I HATE to exercise. As in, despise. I am not an athletic person. I didn't do atheltics in high school. I was just a petite person (my whole family is) and never worried about it. So for me to actually enjoy a workout, it is HUGE in my book. It is not huge on cardio, but you are sweating by the end of it, and it really helps your love handles, butt, thighs, and arms! What more can you ask for??

This is a side-by-side of when I started weight watchers to recently. I have taken time off, and realized that I was spiraling out of control and had to get back on track.

It is so easy to say "oh I'm not on ww anymore I can get whatever I want x2!" And then you wake up feeling bloated, tired, hungry and cranky craving sugar and fattening foods. I am such a food person. I love food. I love going out to dinner. I love me some Generals chicken, some Pizza Hut, and some Olive Garden Alfredo. So for me to cut out all those things in my life it is a BIG challenge and one that makes me proud. I am not fortunate to eat whatever I want and not gain weight like I may have been able to do in my younger. If you can do that, I envy you. My hopes for the future and my life is that I can get to a point where I can find balance between eating healthy things and having things I really enjoy without feeling guilty, and without gaining.

This was me in high school. (on the right) I was skinny, and I ate out EVERY day for open lunch. I also worked in a pizza place, and so I would eat pizza, or other fast food 2-4 times a week for dinner. I never gained, I was in a size 5-7 and I didn't even worry about my weight. My mom has been skinny as long as I can remember, my grandma is as long as I can remember, and my aunts/uncles as long as I can remember. I would say me being as big as I was is an exception in my family, which made me wonder why it was happening. I guess I was in denial about the fact that if you eat that way and don't exercise, it will catch up with you one day.  You can read more about that here.




I am down 17 pounds since starting, and my goal is within 2 weeks to be at a total loss of 20, and work out 3x a week. I don't want to get overwhelmed and lose motivation, But I also want to work on toning.

Weekly Weigh in: Week 5

This week I ate awful. I ate out more than once, I ate frozen pizza, I even had a POP yesterday (Sprite zero, no calories and no caffeine) It was a mess.

I had a migraine yesterday (that continued today) and I think it caused me to feel nauseous because I thought I had a stomach bug. I was feeling like I could hurl at any moment. UGH. Thankfully I drank this and ate some pepto and felt better! 

Normally I go to the grocery store every other Thursday which is the day my points week starts over. Well this time I didn't get to shop until Monday night, so that means a whole weekend of eating whatever I could find because I hadn't made it to the store to get what I needed for healthy eating.
Monday when I got home from shopping I prepped a bunch of food so I would not have an excuse to grab something healthy if I am hungry. My biggest snacking times are around 3-4 pm and again around 9 pm. I am working on the late night ones, but it is a tough one!!

 Rice Crispie treats, fiber one bars, and pre portioned trail mix. In the fridge I stocked carrots and celery, cheese sticks, baby bell cheese, hard boiled eggs, and turkey pepperoni's.

On Tuesday I went with my sister and nephew to McDonald's and I ordered what I normally used to get (2 cheeseburger meal) but with tea and not pop. I punched it in the tracker when I got home and SHEESH!!

That was awful! 16 for the cheeseburgers, and 13 for the fries. I even subconsciously ate the boys' left over chicken nuggets which were 5 points. YIKES. What a wake up call. I mean if you eat out once, twice, or three times a week fast food, no wonder you are becoming obese! That is more than I should have in a whole day. And i didn't even get a big pop to go with it like I usually would have.

In spite of my eating habits this week, I hit a major milestone in my weight watchers journey. I lost 10 pounds!! That is 5% of my starting weight.

I am so proud of myself. This is the longest I have stuck with any weight loss plan in YEARS. Honestly I think it is because I am actually seeing results, but with still being able to eat out and have the things I want every now and then. Because after all that is what life is all about .

Well, I must be doing something right because I am losing weight like crazy. I am not complaining about that at all! I have good days and bad days but I am determined to keep going and lose this weight. It is good affirmation to see the scale drop, and it keeps me motivated that what I am doing is working.

My goals this week are to start exercising 3 times a week, and to drink more water. I have been drinking a lot of tea, and I need to  focus more on water.
I am also going to try not to blow all my weekly points at the beginning of the week by eating out, and save them to have little by little throughout the week (we will see how that goes! HA!)

Week 3 Weigh in: New scale

This week was TOUGH. Just as I had anticipated it would be. I had a wedding on Saturday and was not able to eat very well, Sunday we had a child's birthday party where hot dogs and cake here served.

 I didn't eat the green beans and tried one potatoe (yuck) but the chicken with that sauce (whatever it is) was good and I at that shit up. I hadn't eaten a thing all day and was walking around with a camera attached to my neck. (oh yea, I am a photographer.)
I did my best to limit what I ate, but I also don't want to go out and feel like I CAN'T eat something. That is not what I am going for. I know if I do that I will surely fail when I start to feel like I am deprived.

So last week, week 3, I lost .9 lbs. I had to buy a new scale because my scale is on the side of the toilet and between the toilet and the bathtub and apparently my kids love to splash and completely soaked the inside of my beloved scale. I loved that thing! It was a health o meter with body fat percentage, 4 programmable different people and goal weights and it saves your past weight. It is unfortunately not made anymore so I had to set out to bed bath and beyond to get a new one. I knew I didn't want to spend a ton of money, but I didn't want to get a crappy one either, I need accuracy, to a woman on weight watchers, every .2 of a pound counts!


So I read reviews online while at work, and they were all horrible for each and every scale I looked at. Wal-mart, target, bed bath and beyond, you name it. So I just thought I would go there and wing it. Well, I end up standing there for about 20 minutes and an associate comes to help and I pick out one. I asked the customer service woman if that model was returned a lot and she said honestly they all are. But with the bed bath and beyond return policy you can return it basically at any time for any reason with no hassle. I like that! Plus I had a 20% off mobile coupon so it made it like $26. So far I like it. It is simpler than my previous one but that's ok. I do miss the fact that it remembered my last weigh in though.


The biggest accomplishment that occurred this week is I went down a whole pant size! I am beyond happy about this. It has been a LOOOOONG time since I have had to buy down a size and not up a size, so it is for sure some good motivation and reassurance that I am doing something right and that I am making progress.

 Goodwill for the win!

Some of the foods I have been coking lately include:

Fiesta Chicken Casserole. I lightened up the original recipe from plain chicken by adding low fat cream of chicken, reduced fat cheese, skim milk, brown rice, and baked tostitios tortilla chips. 3 pts per serving and AMAZING in my opinion.

 Some of the things I bring to work with me. I like to have variety. canelope, grapes, apple, pretzel crisps, fiber one bars, rice crispie treats, whole wheat crackers and laughing cow cheese, things like that, that don't break my points bank.

These are Mozzerella sticks from Skinny taste. they are 2 pt for 2 of these (they are one cheese stick cut in half) and delicious.

Thursday is my weigh in day (maybe one of these weeks I will blog on actual weigh in day!) and then we had family in town so we not only went to lunch but dinner with them. Lunch went well, we went to Mcalister's deli and I ordered broccoli cheese soup and a kids meal sized turkey and cheese sandwich. I think It was like 7 pts total. But they always like to eat at buffetts for dinner, and that got me. I did good until I went back for my second plate. Old habits really do die hard. It is a process, not something you can change overnight, that is for sure!

I used up almost all of my weekly points in one day, but I am determined to steer myself back in the right direction. Last week I used almost all my weekly points and I was still able to lose almost a whole pound, so we will see. I will just keep carrying on and doing what I am doing. Sunday we are going to visit more of Derek's family and so I will make sure to pack myself food because I can't afford to get off track for another day!


Here are my first comparison pics.

3 weeks, 6 pounds, and one pant size later. Definitely fell less bloated and have more energy.

I haven't had fast food or a soda in over 3 weeks (one of my major vices). I am so proud of my progress and will just keep going till I reach my goal!

Reasons I have failed at diets in the past

I have been on many diets since I have had the boys. If you have followed The Corral Connection then you have read about various tries in the past. I have never been able to stick with any "diet" for more than about 3 weeks. I go hard the first week or two and then start to feel deprived and end up giving up. Here are some of the reasons I believe I have failed at dieting in the past:

Lack of willpower:

I don't have a lot of self control and if people around me are eating bad I feel like I want to do it too. Even if I know I am not supposed to eat it on my diet or I know that it is so bad for me. 

Lack of Motivation: 

I have always wanted to lose weight. Every time I have tried obviously that was the driving force, but If I would get on the scale in the morning and not see it move at all, then I would be discouraged the whole day and most of the time end up eating something I shouldn't have because I felt like that I was doing wasn't working anyway. 

The right mindset: 

I was in more of a race to see how much weight I could lose ASAP and not realizing that it is a gradual process. I wanted to lose the weight, NOW not wait months for it to happen. The reality is that is a very unrealistic expectation. 

Lack of Support: 

I have an amazing husband who supports me in EVERYTHING I do. I am lucky in that. But when it comes to dieting he knows it is a touchy subject. He never ever says anything negative to me about my weight and so it is hard to get any sort of "support" from him on dieting because I think he is scared if he says the wrong thing he will offend me so he just tells me to do what I want to do and doesn't give much input. He tells me he would love me at any weight no matter what, which is sweet, but it is also a cop out for me to say "oh well, my husband doesn't care that I'm overweight...may as well give up!" 

Lack of knowledge: 

I feel like in the world of weight loss there are a lot of questions. You want to make sure you are eating enough to sustain yourself without eating too much that you don't lose weight. Do you eat back your calories from exercise? Do you count calories or fat? How many carbs should I eat and what time of day? Clean eating...whole other story with lots more to it. There is so much and it can be overwhelming and scary and sometimes would make me want to turn around and run away. 

Good 'ol fashioned denial:

I think part of me was in denial about how bad it really was. I would feel bad about myself but I think I just didn't want to believe that being a little overweight was THAT bad. I remember once just saying screw it, I'm just going to buy bigger clothes that cover myself better and get over it! The WRONG way to deal with it. 

Why I think I will succeed this time? Why is this time any different? I feel like I have gotten to a point where I have realized I don't want to go back. I am in a size 14/16 depending on brands, and a size xl-plus or plus size 1x depending on brand. I am right on the cusp of being PLUS sized and that scares me. Before I always felt like "oh I'm not there yet, when it get there I will worry about it". Well I'm there now, and I don't want to be.

I understand that it isn't going to happen overnight.I am not going to obsess about every meal, and talk about it all the time. I am not going to let weight loss rule my life or my thoughts. It is very tough to do this but it is what is going to be key for me. I will have to find a balance between living life and weight loss. 

I will not get discouraged it I have a cheat meal, don't work out, or don't see the scale move. I will understand that this is a journey not a sprint. Weight watchers tells you to understand that weight watchers isn't a diet it is a lifestyle change. Don't treat weight watchers like a diet and you will be more successful. I am going to aim for that.