Finding a groove and trying not to fall in public [again] whilst becoming adjusted to said groove.

I won't lie. It was another disappointing weigh-in. Honestly, besides drink more water and not eating that red velvet cupcake last night, I don't know what else I could have done food-wise to lose more the the 0.6 lbs. I didn't use all my weekly allowance and I left my 40ish activity points alone. With just those activity points, I should have lost more.

Grr.

Oh and part of the subject line refers to this morning when I tripped on an office chair and went flying across the room. My next door coworker thought I fainted.

As long as I'm on the subject of personal injury--try this one on for size: One night last week I decided to make air-popcorn. The machine stops when it gets overheated. I took the opportunity to open the top and add more kernels. Well, it decided to start up again with the top open and one or two insanely hot kernels came flying out and happened to find my cleavage. Then they got stuck in my sports bra. That did not feel good and ultimately left a quarter-size itchy, sore blister.

Oh well. Moving on.

I was doing some reading this week about using or losing WW weekly allowance and activity points. Some people use activity points first, some don't like to touch either their allowance or activity, some insist on eating every point allotted to them. I tend to fall somewhere in the middle. I like to leave my activity points alone and I like to leave some of my weeklies, if possible.

Honestly, with eating better (meaning more fruits and veggies, which are zero points for the most part), I'm finding it way easier to stay within my daily points. Depending on the day, I have to make a point of eating a little more to reach my points. Some days, it's no problemo zooming right past my daily points, it just depends on the day and what's on the menu. For today, I have a pretty good lineup of food:

This photo doesn't include the egg whites and turkey bacon I had on the drive to work. (2 pts total)

Before I even have dinner, I will have had about 6-7 fruit and veggie servings (that's over a serving of broccoli and that orange is HUGE). Considering my former norm (at my least healthy) was maaaaybe 2 servings of veggies, this is a major change in my habits. Call me sick, but after packing up my lunch, I regretted not adding zucchini to the wrap. I am becoming obsessed with stuffing as many veggies into meals as I can. Weekday breakfasts are definitely a weakness in that area, but I more than make up for it later in the day. I am trying very hard to like fruit. I'm definitely more of a veggie eater.

As you can see, I'm not exactly starving. I'm not on a diet--this is how I eat now. Honestly, I'm not sure I'll be able to get through all of this. As I write, it's close to 1pm, I just finished that mammoth of a wrap and I'm FULL. Granted, my 80 min walk/run will burn that off quicker than usual, but still.

If you're curious about WW, here's a breakdown of my points so far:

1 Egg white + 1/2 egg (2nd half of my breakfast from Saturday)= 1 point
2 slices of turkey bacon =1 point
=2 points

1 cup Raisin Bran =5 points (worth it, nutrition-wise + it fills me up big time)

1/2 cup skim milk =1 point

=6 points

1 large tortilla =4 points (next time I'm going to try whole wheat to up the nutritional value)
4 slices of turkey lunchmeat =2 points
1/8 cup of reduced fat cheddar cheese =1 point
2 tablespoons of hummus =2 points
1/2 cup of cooked spinach =0 points
1 cup romaine lettuce =0 points

1 medium tomato, diced =0 points

1/2 cup sauteed mushrooms =0 points

=9 points

Snacks:

Broccoli w/ 1/4 cup of reduced fat cheddar cheese =2 points
Orange =0 points
Apple slices =0 points
=2 points

So by dinnertime, I will have used 19 points. The minimum number of daily points per day is 29.

The gist? You will not go hungry on WW once you get in your groove. I eat about 6 times a day on average during the week. (Weekends are a little less regimented.)

It's not always easy--it's much better when I can plan ahead and know the nutritional facts of what I'll be eating, but that's not always the case.

C25K Check-in: So I'm opting to gauge my running based on distance instead of time. With time, I was having to watch the seconds tick away on my iPod and only doing the bare minimum--in other words, when my time was up, my feet came to a screeching halt. I much prefer giving myself a distance goal, like "I'm going to start running at that tree and run to the shady area up the way. I'm enjoying it so much better and can focus on running instead of trying to read the numbers on my bouncing iPod in the sunlight.

I didn't complete the full session for Week 2, Day 1 (approximately 90 second running intervals), but did 5 out of 8 intervals. Boy did I have some bounce in my step though and did I feel GOOD. I'm not going to focus on not finishing the total number of intervals, I'm focusing on the fact that my body is responding, my endurance is up, my lung capacity seems higher.

Huh. Maybe I'll be a runner after all.

Now, I should let you know that I'm not doing the exact schedule of C25K. I'm using the advice of taking it slow and working my way up. I'm pushing myself, but I'm not going to force myself to do more intervals when I honestly feel like I can't. Bob and Jillian would probably disagree with this tactic, but I want to like running, if not love it and it kind of leaves me wanting more and wanting to push myself further the next time. I won't be running a 5K in a total of 8 weeks, but I will run a 5K.

So in my 80 minute outing today (I had to take advantage of the weather today since the rest of the week is going to be HOT), I ran for about 8 minutes. This is the same amount of time as week 1, but I did it in 3 fewer intervals.

Things I learned this week: Hummus in a wrap instead of mayo is delicious and more nutritious. Thank you, former Biggest Loser contestant.

"What have you done today to make you feel proud?":
Monday-I didn't let a disappointing weigh-in get me down
Tuesday-I felt empowered. I realized how well I'm doing getting in my veggies & eating well, which is making a difference in some GI issues I've been having.
Wednesday-Took the day at a slower place, didn't make any plans for the whole day and didn't feel once like I should be doing something other than what I was doing.
Thursday-Avoided temptation in the form of a Costco churro. (Which I just looked up and found to be worth 11 WW points...and that just confirmed I will never eat another slice of Costco pizza at 19 POINTS PER SLICE. Holy crap. Hot dogs are awful, too, but they're soo good...boohoo. Rare occasions only. Oh and just to give you an alternative, you can have a slice of most large Papa John's pizzas for about half the points.) I also cleaned out my closet, literally. 3 huge trash bags are waiting to be taken to be donated.
Friday-Made myself walk when I didn't want to.
Saturday-Fit activity into normal life. Went a month without drinking soda.
Sunday-I put together everything for my lunch and breakfast today while Little ate her dinner so all's I had to do this morning (besides get Little dressed) was get myself dressed and put my makeup on.

What I did well this week: Ate my veggies. Drank my water. Ate my fiber. I've noticed my attitude and thinking is a lot more positive for the most part. I plan ahead for food and am packing my lunch the night before to make mornings a little less hectic.

I'm also taking better care of myself in other aspects. For example, I spoiled myself with an Origins order last week. Their products are on the pricey side, but my facial moisturizer was running low and I love its so I got a whole set, which included eye treatments and a facial mask.

What I struggled with this week: I still had a couple days when I didn't drink enough water. The scale didn't seem to want to budge much no matter what I did so that's a challenge mentally and physically.

Motivation for this week: Push forward and get closer to my next goal of 55 pounds lost and 19 to go. It'll feel great to have less than 20 to go when I started off with 74.

Oh yeah, and I'm setting aside a stash of moolah to go toward new clothes when I hit goal weight..and won't that be fun to spend?