Friday Reflection’s…a little late, but LOT’S to say……

 Friday’s Weight Watcher Meeting

Friday’s Weight Watcher meeting was about Late Night Snacking, which for some reason has never been an issue for me. My snacking issue is from about 3:00 pm until dinnertime. Always has been. If I can keep myself busy when I am at home, then no worries, but if I don’t seem to have a lot going on, or if I find myself in a stressful situation, then that’s where the afternoon snacking can really take me over on my points for the day. There have been days that I ended up eating a much smaller dinner due to my afternoon snacking, or there have been evenings where I had snacked so much during the afternoon, that when dinnertime came around, I wasn’t even hungry, so I skipped that meal all together. 

Here are a few tips for Late Night Snacking…or Afternoon Snacking

1. Keep a few points available and PLAN to have a snack, that way you avoid any guilt in snacking.

2. I try to snack from the fridge, not the pantry. My pantry items are likely to be crackers, cookies, chips or granola bars….higher in points. My fridge snacks are likely to be yogurt, fruit, veggies and hummus or maybe some string cheese…..lower in points, or possibly, no points at all.

3. Write down a list of zero to 2 point snacks, and keep that list on the kitchen counter, or close to your WW Journal. When you want a snack, eat something ONLY from your previously made list!

4. This is something they say at the WW meetings a lot. Ask yourself…..”Is it worth it?”

 My “Coach”

I met with my “coach” on Saturday morning for coffee. We chatted about my trip to Dallas the previous weekend and my decision to have three drinks on Friday, AND on Saturday, AND on Sunday, and how it affected my eating on Monday and Tuesday, and why in the world would I do that when I am so close to reaching my goal????? I had to think really hard over the weekend about the answer to that. The best answer that I can come up with is…..”Uh, I’m not real sure. It was fun?”. I know that sounds ridiculous. My weight loss journey has been S L O W, and I have blogged about that subject (the slowness) a lot. One of things that has been a huge contributing factor in my slow weight loss has been my “socializing habits”. I know this, and sometimes my decision to pass on the adult beverages is easier than others. I was looking forward to relaxing this past weekend and getting Mike out of town and away from work. I viewed it as a mini vacation. I was at my lowest weight, I was feeling a little “on top of the world”, and I decided to indulge a bit. So I did. Even though I did drink and snack on pizza and taco’s and a quesadilla, I ate and drank probably a 1/3 of what I would have eaten four or five years ago. I likely would have had six to eight beers each day (just two years ago), not just three. So for me, even though I may have stalled my weight loss a bit, I see huge improvements from my past behavior.

“Coach” is a very determined and goal oriented person. When she first started coaching me back in February, after my rotator cuff surgery, I was really feeling a bit hopeless. I think the surgery had me a little depressed. I was at home doing nothing but snacking and I wasn’t able to exercise. I had been reading her blog over the last several months and I had watched her go from 224 lbs to 150 lbs in ELEVEN months!!! She had met her weight loss goals, and was now looking for a project, a person that she could perhaps help reach their own weight loss goals.  I asked her if she would be interested in ME being her project. She had been reading my blog as well and she said YES immediately. She helped me set some weight loss goals with deadlines on the calendar, and she encouraged me to make charts, which I did. Without her and our “coffee meetings” and her checking in on me daily, I would not be in the 150’s, and I know this. We originally set my goal of 150 to be reached at the end of August. When I didn’t meet that goal, she was super patient with me and we changed my goal to September. Then it was changed to November 22nd, my birthday. I was begining to feel like it was more important to her that I weigh 150 by my birthday than it was to me. In reality, she was simply coaching me towards a goal we had set, and somewhere along the way, I had decided that 150 was still my goal, but getting there by my birthday was not as important to me as I thought it was. What WAS important to me, was the healthy lifestyle that I have now, and knowing that as long as I continue down the path of “healthy”, the weight will come off. If I do get to 150 by my birthday, well, that will be a great birthday present to myself and I’ll be very happy, but if on November 22, I weigh 152, I’ll still be very happy.

This mornings weight? 153! 🙂

My Weekend

My mom grew up in Augusta, a little town just outside of Wichita, Kansas. Every so often, (not often enough), she likes to go back to Augusta and visit her childhood friends that still live there. I’d hate for her to make that drive (not quite three hours) by herself, so I usually drive her there, and join the fun. Her friends are great and we always have a good time. I like to give them all a hard time about being so darn “old” and they all like to give me a hard time about whatever they come up with at the time. We checked into our hotel, relaxed a bit, then headed out to the local sports bar to meet up with the “Gang”.

They like to play “Keno”, drink beers, and tell stories about when they were kids. They all went to High School together, but some of them have even known each other since before Grade School!

This is Denny. I always have to hear about how he and my mom took baths together when they were little because they had the same babysitter!!

 

Mom and Denny have remained good friends all these years.

 

Mom and Francine graduated High School together, and were likely the cutest girls in the class. They’re both under 4’9″. 🙂

 

We had a great time out and about with friends and hope to do it again soon!

 

 

Snacks to pack!

I really wanted to stay on track over the weekend, and I knew if I didn’t pack snacks, then I would likely be eating fast food, so I got busy packing the cooler!

I grilled up some chicken breast, cut them into bite sized pieces, then weighed them and put them into 3 oz serving sizes.

 

I packed plenty of Honeycrisp Apples. Perfect for a late night snack, or something to munch on while driving.

 

I ate a few bites of chicken and some carrot sticks after we checked into our Hotel. The vending machine was loaded with candy bars and totally calling my name. I stayed strong and went with my chicken and carrot sticks. 

 

I was really glad I had come prepared.

 

I had measured out a serving of Kashi cereal in case I wanted something sweet to munch on. After going out on Saturday, mom and I stayed up in the hotel room and drank coffee and chatted, so I was glad I had a little something sweet and crunchy to snack on with my coffee.

 

I knew the hotel had a breakfast bar set up in the lobby, but I wasn’t sure what all of the choices would be, so I took some of my own yogurt.

 

They had banana’s, so I snatched up a little packet of peanut butter to eat with it and breakfast was perfect!

 

I didn’t take pictures of everything that I ate, but I did write it all down and I kept track of my points over the entire weekend.  Saturday after we checked into the hotel, the weather outside was gorgeous, so I took a good 30 minute walk.

Sunday morning we drove home just in time to catch the football game. After watching the Kick Ass Chiefs game, (okay, more scary than kick ass), I worked in the yard, mowing and bagging leaves. I had a great weekend making healthy choices and I have a feeling that Friday morning’s Weigh-In will be one pound closer to 150!

My Plans for Monday through Thursday

I’m going to work on eating lots of protein, exercising, and getting lots of water in. We have several things planned for the week, so there will be some challenges, but I plan to be successful!

 

 

“love the life you live, live the life you love”