Tag: Weight Watchers

Find what works for you

Celeste E.

For me, WW (Weight Watchers) works. It always has and I am guessing it always will.

I first started with WW in 2009. And after being away from it for a number of years, I started back up. And let me tell you how good it feels to be back on track.

After last week’s weigh-in, however, I will admit I was dreading stepping on the scale this morning. I didn’t gain last week, I stayed the same, which is truly a win, but as many of you know, it is still deflating – especially when you are in the beginning stages of your journey. Feeling a little apprehensive, I stepped on the scale and to my surprise, I had a good loss. A great loss, really.

I started back on WW on Jan. 3 and have since dropped nearly 12 pounds.

To be honest, I am quite shocked. I think I am even doing better this time around compared to the first time I ever started with WW. And yes, of course, I would love for the extra pounds to just melt off and not have to work so damn hard at it, but I have to say, I am happy and actually a little proud of myself. I have been working hard by way of making sure I get my exercise in and in making healthier choices. I have yet to feel deprived. I feel great. I am eating normal portions sizes again and am still enjoying the foods I love.

Although, I have to say this past weekend, I skipped cake. Yes, me. I skipped cake. If you know me, you know my love for cake. If you don’t know me, let’s just say if I could, I would eat cake every damn day. I love cake. But I knew if I had one piece, even a small piece, I would spiral and give up and eat three more pieces without even blinking my eyes. I felt powerful saying no. It felt good to say no. Will that happen every time. Nope, it sure won’t. But this time it did and I was happy.

Anyway, like I said, for me, WW works. I know that not everybody likes WW, but that’s the cool part, they don’t have to. Everyone has to find what works for them. Everyone has to find their thing and for me, it is definitely WW.

I was chatting with a friend recently and she told me about a program she is starting. I was excited for her. I didn’t try and steer her toward WW because that is what I love. Instead, I listened intently and am genuinely excited for her. I am cheering her on and hope what she found works for her. I am proud of her and seriously super stoked. I am 100% behind her and will help in any way I can.

Stop the stigma

I have to share something that popped up on my Facebook feed.

Ironically, this popped up on the day I made an appointment to talk to a counselor. I won’t get into all of it just yet, but I am here to say that if you know things are not right in your head, if you feel off, if you are feeling down, if you are just not feeling like yourself, there is absolutely NO SHAME in reaching out for help. I am not sure what is going, but I know things are not right. It is really hard to try and explain. I am not sure if it is all related to menopause or if it is just genetics or what, but after a recent meltdown, I knew it was time to reach out. I may share more about this part of my journey, I may not. I am only mentioning it because I want and need people to know that it is OK to ask for help. If you feel you need help, just do the damn thing and ask for it. Please, just do it.

Finding new foods, falling back in love with some I forgot about

Celeste E.

I started back with WW (Weight Watchers) on Jan. 3. Tomorrow will be my fourth weigh-in. So far, I have lost 8.6 pounds and I am very happy about that.

Of course, I wish I hadn’t let myself go and have this much work to do again. But I do. I have almost 20 more pounds to lose to get back to where I was happy. And that is where I am heading. Back to feeling good about myself and back to feeling healthy again. And hopefully back to feeling happy.

Besides my weight, I am working on getting my endurance back and hopefully running at a pace that I am happy with. Currently, that is not the case. I have had some decent treadmill runs, but honestly, the majority have been shitty. Could I push myself a little more? Probably, but running is still really hard yet. Is it all my weight? Probably not. Even though my lungs weren’t really impacted when I had COVID last November, it is still semi hard to run and I get SUPER tired when I push really hard. I know it will come, but I wish it would come a little faster.

My husband and I signed up for a St. Patrick’s race on March 19. It’s the “Shamrock N Run” in Fargo and we decided to sign up for the 14K, which is 8.7 miles. Does it scare the hell out of me? You bet. But does it also excite me? Yes, yes it does. I want to get back to running some longer distances and hopefully this will give me the incentive to keep at it. Since Jan. 3, my longest distance has only been six miles and I still haven’t been able to run the whole thing. I have had to do some walking, which really isn’t that big of deal, but I kind of wish I could run the whole thing. I’ll get there. I know I will. I just sometimes don’t have a lot of patience.

On the food front, things have been going really, really well. I feel good with where I am at. We have been making some super delicious meals and we are still having our date nights. I have just switched up some things and again, I am super happy about where I am at with food.

Here’s a look at some yummy things we have had in the last couple of weeks:

These are coffee-cardamom date balls. So delicious. The recipe came from my new WW cookbook, which I received as a bonus for signing up when I did.

I have been making some suppers lately as Al does his treadmilling when he gets home from work. I will admit, it’s been kind of fun. Kind of. This is a stir fry I made, which by the way, was the first stir fry I have ever made it my life. It turned out pretty good. I was kind of impressed with myself.

For our appetizers on Saturday night date night, we have been turning to my favorite hummus, Tribe. We get the roasted red pepper one and have it with raw veggies. So yummy!

Al made a delicious mahi mahi with a mango avocado salsa on top and we had it with a sweet potato recipe I found on WW. It was sweet potatoes, crushed pineapple, Splenda and cinnamon. SO TASTY.

Super easy to make. Just combine all the ingredients and bake. I would have never thought to put pineapple with sweet potatoes but seriously, it was so good.

This was a vegetarian taco casserole that Al made from the WW cookbook. We had enough leftover for me to have it two days for lunch. I loved it!

This is a Greek pizza we made, which is a favorite of ours. We made it for the first time in 2007. We switched up a few things from the recipe, but damn, it is still SO GOOD.

Al brushed garlic infused olive oil on the crust and then topped with spinach (not shown), artichokes, kalamata olives, green pepper, fat free feta cheese, oregano and parmesan cheese.

So tasty!

This is what our kitchen looks like during a Saturday night date night meal. Yep, it is messier than messy, but it doesn’t matter. It literally took me like 10 minutes to clean up. And so worth it.

These are a couple of wines I found – one is very WW point friendly, while the other I expected to be, but it was not. The Cupcake LightHearted was very WW friendly. If one would happen to drink a whole bottle, it is only 15 WW points. The other one, the FitVine, which comes across as being so much better for you than regular wine, is the same amount of points per bottle – 22 – than regular wine. I did still drink it, but I think I will stick with the Cupcake LightHearted, which by the way comes in five different varieties.

I bought the WW 2-Ingredient Dough Bagel Kit and I made some this morning. They were decent. Maybe a little dry, but still better than I expected. I will definitely make them again.

Another food item that has been a staple for me the last three weeks and something I kind of forgot about is my turkey roll ups. I don’t have a picture, but I take six pieces of Oscar Meyer smoked turkey and make three “stacks” of two slices each. I then take a wedge of the light Laughing Cow cheese and divide it into thirds and spread each third on each stack of meat. I then put a pickle on it and roll it up. It’s so good.

Throughout the last few weeks, I have tried some new foods that I found out I love, re-discovered all the veggies I had quit eating and remembered some of my favorite foods I quit eating because I quit my healthy living journey. It feels good to be back.

As I continue on this journey, I know there will be some ups and some downs, but my goal is to just keep going, one day at a time. I am feeling good with how things have been going so far and I hope that continues.

If you are on this same journey, how is it going for you? Leave me a comment if you want to share. I would love to hear from you!

Good days…and wish-I-could-do-better days!

Celeste E.

It’s been nearly two weeks since I started back on WW (Weight Watchers) and for the most part, it’s been going well.

At least food wise. Exercise wise, it’s been going just OK. I still have days I struggle and days I have missed and days it takes me two hours in the morning to talk myself into getting on the treadmill. Yes, for real. Two hours. That is why I get up for frigging early. And honestly, as I type this, I should really be on the treadmill, but I just couldn’t do it. I didn’t have it in me this morning. Will I regret it later. Probably. But for right now am I OK with it? Yes. Yes I am in.

Here’s a look at a few of the workouts I have done. I tend to do the manual mode most often. And for right now, I usually do a combo of walk/run. Because of my weight gain, it’s obviously harder than it was before and also, I think there are lingering effects from COVID. I am always SUPER exhausted and I have been dealing with headaches – some pretty bad, others just are there and kind of linger all day. So, the treadmill wears me out pretty easy and I can’t – at least for now – run the entire time.

I will have to say, I was pleasantly surprised with my first weigh-in after starting. I lost almost four pounds and I was happy with that. In the past, I have usually lost between five and six pounds my first week, but almost four is really good. My first go-round with WW, which by the way last for about eight years – yes, I tracked and did all the WW things for about eight years straight – I lost on average about 0.8 pounds per week. So not even a pound a week. And I was happy with that. I have no idea how it will go this time. I am going to take it one week and sometimes one day, at a time.

Food wise, like I said, is going well. I am happy about my choices. It feels good to be eating healthy again and it feels good to be eating normal portion sizes. Yes, I am back to measuring and weighing my foods because that is what I needed. My portions were OUT OF CONTROL!

I don’t feel like I am staring and I definitely don’t feel like I am depriving myself. And, my hubby and still have our fun date night meals and I still drink beer or other alcoholic beverages. I am just making different choices.

For instance, last weekend we ended up in St. Cloud. We went out for lunch at Mongos Grill and I made good choices food wise and portion wise. And it was so much fun.

We spent the night in St. Cloud and stayed at a hotel that we knew had kitchens in their room. We went grocery shopping (at three different stores) and then for supper, stayed in and cooked in our hotel room. This is not a first for us. We actually love to do this. I have a bag filled with kitchen things we might need and I bring that with when we know we are going to be cooking in our room.

Here’s what we had:

It was swordfish with a strawberry sauce and roasted sweet potatoes.

We also had a piece of tuna steak with it. Both were DELICIOUS.

We found these frozen sweet potato planks that you could make in the toaster. They kind of worked, but would be better roasted in the oven or on the stove.

Although a tad on the pricey side, they really were good and I would have them again.

We also went to a brewery, which was right across the street from our hotel. And I even had two beers. Dark beers. Really, really good dark beers. When we got back to the hotel, I switched and drank a couple of Michelob Ultras. And you know what, they tasted good, too!

So, I am usually a really good water drinker. I actually LOVE water. But, I never really knew how much I drank in a day. I thought I drank enough, but after I bought a new water bottle, I realized that maybe I really didn’t. It’s amazing what a stupid water bottle can do for a person. I now know I am getting my water in. I usually drink two of these bottles while I am at work. Plus, I drink water before I go to work and then I drink even more water at night after I get home from work. I definitely am getting in my water now. The only downside? All the DAMN trips to the bathroom. So annoying, but I guess worth it as I know drinking water is SO GOOD for a person.

So, I have to brag a little. I am not the best cook and honestly, I don’t really like to cook. I am not the best follower of recipes and greatly prefer just whipping stuff together.

On Wednesday night, I whipped up a little hotdish using 99% lean ground turkey, a bag of frozen veggies, Israeli couscous and a packet of French onion soup mix. It was super delicious and SUPER low in points. And it reminded me of tater tot hotdish. It was actually creamy without using any cream soup.

On Thursday night, I whipped up a pasta dish using turkey cheddar brats, garden rotini, bell peppers, Laughing Cow cheese, parmesan cheese and of all things, a can of Michelob Ultra. Point wise, it was a little higher than our meal on Wednesday night, but it was still mostly healthy and it tasty SO frigging good. Amazing really.

I have to say for someone who doesn’t like cooking, making whipping these two dishes was actually kind of fun. Fun fact: I believe this is the FIRST time ever that I cooked supper two nights in a row. When I say I don’t cook, I really mean it. My hubby does 99% of the cooking. I maybe cook one or two times a month. Two nights in a row for me is super impressive!

I am hoping over the course of the next month, I can step up my exercise game. My goal is to at least get some type of exercise in at least five times a week. I know I can do it, I just have to get my head in the game and not be such a lazy a$$! Lol.

Feel free to share your goals. I’d love to hear what everyone else is doing. And feel free to share ideas for healthy meals!