dianaschnuth

Weigh-in: down 1.6 pounds!

How did I manage this? Hell if I know.

My major oopsie: Saturday. For whatever reason (I’m chalking it up to Mommy Brain), it didn’t occur to me that a baby shower held from 2pm to 4pm would include a lunch potluck. So, luckily, I did eat lunch before I went to the shower. I still ate one plateful of delicious food, though: green been casserole, cheesy potatoes, mustard potato salad, and ravioli — all ¼ to ½ cup servings, except for the cheesy potatoes, which were a major 1-cup indulgence.

I’m guessing that I went over my Weekly Allowance Points, but I didn’t track Saturday’s meals, so I’ll never know for sure. I’m assuming I did. So, my first weekly goal to have some Weekly Allowance Points left over at the end of the week is out the window.

My minor oopsie: exercise. Or lack thereof. I didn’t really get going on the exercise tip until yesterday, when I started the Hundred Pushups program. Today I started Couch to 5K®, which accounted for 24 minutes of cardio. But that counts for this week, not last week. So, my weekly goal to exercise for at least 20 minutes a day for at least three days is totally blown.

NSV (Non-Scale Victory): I did eat more fruits and vegetables than last week — or at least the same amount, since I only maxxed out my servings for three days, not more than three days.

NSV #2: As mentioned above, I started the Hundred Pushups program (at the suggestion of Adam Tinkoff, aka Zen Runner of the Slow Runners Club). I attempted this years ago, but didn’t last long. This time, even though I’m doing modified pushups on my knees (aka “girlie pushups”), I’m going to see the program through to the end… then restart doing standard pushups.

So, what are my goals for this week? Mainly, complete Week One of C25K and 100 Pushups. If I can manage that on the exercise front, and have some Weekly Allowance Points left over at the end of the week, I’ll consider the week a rousing success, whether the scale says I gain or lose.

First and foremost, my weigh-in: I gained 0.8 pounds this week.

Last week, I’d decided on three strategies to help me get back on the wagon. How did I do?

1.) Stay within my daily Points range.

I was only successful at this for three out of seven days, with Saturday and Monday being abysmal slip-ups:

I failed to plan on Saturday, eating Pointariffic meals for both lunch (Thai) and dinner (Indian). Note to self: in the future, only eat one meal with rice per day.

2.) Eat my fruits and vegetables.

I did better on this one, increasing my maxxed-out veggie days from two to three, and eating at least some fruits and veggies daily.

It’s really not that hard to get all my fruits and veggies in. A bowl of fruit salad will get half of that, and I’ve changed my nighttime noshing during Connor’s feedings from granola bars to apples (Honeycrisp, specifically).

3.) Increase my exercise frequency.

This one I just failed miserably, hands down. I only managed to get out for one short walk last week.

Since Aaron and I will be doing a trial run of workday feedings starting on Monday, I may take a guilt-free morning run/walk starting on Monday. I know he’d tell me I can go out for a walk any afternoon I want… but my afternoons seem to be devoted to feeding Connor his lunch, then eating mine, then giving Connor some tummy time (or just wrangling him to figure out why he’s cranky), then taking a nap, then seeing Aaron off to work. As it is, I usually have to choose between nap and walk.

Since the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, I’m going to modify my admittedly vague goals and see how I do this week.

1.) Have some Weekly Allowance Points left over at the end of the week. I’ve already gone over my Points one day this week, using 11 Weekly Points. If I can just try not to use them all, I’ll be doing better than last week.

2.) Eat more fruits and vegetables. Max out my servings more than three days this week, and always get at least some in every day.

3.) Exercise for at least 20 minutes a day for at least three days. That could be a walk around my neighborhood, some calisthenics in the basement, a yoga DVD, or finding some workout-with-baby thing on YouTube. It could even be post-cesarean abdominal exercises.

I signed up for this thing because I felt like I needed the structure of Weight Watchers again; it doesn’t do me any good if I don’t follow the program. I’m just flushing money down the toilet if I don’t apply myself.

I’d like to rejoin my At Work meeting at the weight I left it (191.6) — or, preferably, my all-time low weigh-in (184.2), which happened the day after I found out I was pregnant. That means I have between three and ten pounds to lose.

I can do that.

I would venture to say that I was on the verge of being obsessed over my pregnancy weight. I continued to track my food intake while I was pregnant, just as if I were actively trying to lose weight (as I have been for the past several years), except my intention was to allow myself to gain — ever so slowly. After having been on Weight Watchers for the past three years, intentionally letting the scale move the other direction was disconcerting, and I monitored my weight just like I always had: daily, every morning, but without letting myself obsess too much over daily fluctuations.

From Connor’s conception to his birth, I gained 33 lbs. (Granted, I lost several pounds in that first two months when I didn’t know I was pregnant and was still eating to lose, so my pre-pregnancy weight was not my lowest weight.) Within a week of Connor’s birth, I lost 20 of those 33; after another week, I leveled off after having lost 26 pounds total without really trying.

I had hoped that breastfeeding would be enough to keep the momentum going, but my body apparently decided that the low 190’s was a good place to chill at for a while. Not surprising: I’ve plateaued at that weight before.

My measurements reflect my slightly higher weight: since mid-March (when I was not yet three months pregnant and before I started showing) I’m up two inches in my hips and three in my waist. My bust is obviously bigger now that I’m breastfeeding, and I’m not concerned about that. The other parts, though… those do concern me.

So, since I know what’s worked for me in the past, and since I won’t be going back to work for another month, I signed up for Weight Watchers Online. Once the next At Work session starts in February, I’ll jump on that, since my employer subsides the cost, so it’s actually cheaper than Online. Until then, though, I needed to return to the structure that I knew.

Non-Scale Victories (NSVs) for this week:

• My pre-pregnancy jeans fasten! *happydance*
• I made a successful return to tracking my food and exercise, after a six-week post-pregnancy tracking hiatus.

I’m focusing on my NSVs because I actually gained 1.2 pounds during my first week back on Program.

So, how am I going to turn this around and really get back on the wagon?

Turns out that, in my absence, Weight Watchers has added a new tool to eTools: a Weekly Progress Report. I’ve been desperately wanting a dashboard like this, but have also been too lazy to manually tabulate all of my data for myself.

This definitely helps me see where my issues lie. First and foremost is to stay within my daily Points range. I’ve come to learn that my body doesn’t need those extra Weekly Points Allowance if I’m looking to lose weight. I also need to eat my fruits and vegetables. Saturday wasn’t a tracking flub: I really didn’t eat enough fruits or veggies to bother tracking, unless I had an entire cup of shredded lettuce on my tacos at San Marco’s or ate an entire half-cup of kimchee and other veggie side dishes at Korea Na.

Finally, and this is something I’ve been looking forward to addressing for some time now, is to increase my exercise frequency. It’s going to be a challenge to fit in a walk or a run/walk with a baby in the house, but it’s just not negotiable. Not in the long run. Eventually, I’m going to figure out a way to work this into my new baby-toting lifestyle.

I’m hoping to keep myself honest by posting weekly updates — at least until I have the accountability of meetings again.

I don’t feel like I “wrecked” my body by having a baby; this was just another detour on my journey to getting as fit as I want to be.

“I think of you every time I see those shirataki noodles in the store,” a fellow Weight Watcher told me a few weeks ago. Turns out that she doesn’t share my much-professed enjoyment of Tofu Shirataki Noodles.

Granted, if you try to eat shirataki noodles like a normal flour-based noodle, the texture will seem a little off: gummy, or slimy, or chewy. That’s why I stir-fry mine:

Quick Shirataki Stir-Fry

One 8 oz bag tofu shirataki noodles
8 oz imitation crab or frozen cocktail shrimp, thawed
1 cup frozen broccoli or stir-fry vegetable medley
1 Tbsp soy sauce
dash of fish sauce
sriracha (rooster) sauce, to taste
basil, dried
one egg (optional)

Combine ingredients in a non-stick pan and stir-fry until slightly browned.
Weight Watchers PointsPlus: 9 (including egg)