All of the above.
My trainer kicked my ass all over the floor today. And she wants me to come in three times a week. Well, I had to work hard to figure out my schedule on that one. My new Monday is going to be crazy. Up at 5, work from 7-5, drive about two hours to the gym and workout for about two hours, putting me home at about 9:30pm - my exact bedtime.
Two hours to get to the gym? Not sure that is sustainable…
Anyway, today I am overwieght. I mean, I am ONLY overweight. DAMMIT that still doesn’t sound good.
My BMI is in the overweight range. So, I am not longer OBESE!
Glad to have that goal down!
I made cookies this weekend, because I wanted to. 
I ate 6(!) of them yesterday, but budgeted the rest of my calories accordingly and still ate well under maintenance. I gave the rest of the cookies to my dad for him to take to his office, so I would not be tempted to eat the rest of the batch.
They were really good, too. Coconut chocolate chunk. A+++ would make again.
Also, I am now two weeks late for my period, and I know I ain’t pregnant. I blame my diet plan. Low-carb eating is the only thing that got my PCOS under control.
Have been on Weight Watchers for two weeks, and I’m not doing well. I’ve lost some fraction of a pound in that time. I’m hungry and frustrated.
Sticking to the old WW Core list is the only way I can stay within my points, but it’s so limiting and frustrating. I can’t eat bread or pasta at all, or I get so hungry I can’t stand it… light-headed, shaking, stomach cramps, bad mood, headache. Yes, I’ve had several glucose tests, they were always normal.
I just hate it. Hate hate hate.
Sattua, one thing I found helps me avoid hunger is fruit. It’s no points. I always bring in 2-3 pieces with me to work in case I get hungry before lunch.
What are you eating, and why can’t you eat bread or pasta? Whole-wheat pasta and low-cal bread, for example, are both considered Power Foods, and those are allowed on Simply Filling. In fact, you can have a cup of whole-wheat pasta, a half-cup of marinara sauce, and a green salad for six points.
If I can make a suggestion, either talk to a Leader (if you’re a meetings member), or post a thread to the message boards (if you’re an online member). You’re not doing something right.
A “perfect” day for me, one which will get me some weight loss if I can repeat it for 3-4 days in a row, goes like this:
Early morning latte, one cup 1% milk
Breakfast, 1/2 c dry measure old fashioned oats, 1 egg scrambled with Pam, 2 servings cut up fruit
Lunch, 4 oz protein usually chicken breast, 1/2 c whole grain salad without oil, large green salad with tomatoes and Newman’s Own light dressing
Snack, Fiber One something or other (something’s gotta give) and fruit for about 4 points total
Dinner, 4 oz protein, small plain baked potato or grain salad, 2-3 servings cooked veg
Bedtime, 1/2 c 1% cottage cheese and some fruit
What I mean by “I can’t eat bread or pasta” is that if I substitute my lunchtime whole grain for one of those, I’ll be crippled by hunger and the usual afternoon snack won’t be enough to get me to dinner. Even as it is, I can usually have only 2-3 “perfect” days before I get so hungry I need to blow through a lot of weekly points.
I saw that they had replaced avocados and olives with light bread when they turned Core into Simply Filling. I just shook my head. A bad, bad idea for me, for whatever reason. I used to do Core and it worked great for me… as long as I DIDN’T eat brown rice or whole-wheat pasta. When I got into the habit of having them a few times a week, the weight loss would stop.
It’s not that I mind alternating my 2-3 “perfect” days with high-point days, it just drives me crazy to have to pay such close attention to what I’m eating. I’d rather have the mental space, and the prep time, for other things.
Isn’t that what Weight Watchers is all about? Don’t you just get points and use them at will?
Also, I find the hunger thing is oddly motivating. As long as my blood sugar doesn’t go through the floor, my stomach growling and me telling it no is somehow satisfying.
(I am weird and can tell real hunger from my body trying to trick me.)
Maybe you should move around your food timing? I usually push my lunch as late as possible (it’s 2 o’clock now and I am just finishing up) so that I make it until dinner. I COULD eat part of my lunch earlier and then have a snack but I don’t make it as long.
YAAAAAY!!!
After my month-long stall, I’m dropping weight like crazy. Back to 2 lbs a week. I took measurements and Neck/Waist/Hips are down an inch a piece in 2 weeks, which is really nice because they’d been the same since APRIL!!!
Took the week off from the gym because my period was just wreaking havoc. Not only did I not feel good but I had no appetite, so I couldn’t eat enough to sustain me through the gym every day.
This week I have free time after work (baseball team is on the west coast) so I’ll be hitting it hard. But I still don’t wanna. Next week will be the same schedule.
I’ve got an event on the 25th where I’ll be letting go eating-wise, so I hope to get these last 4 lbs off to hit 10 lbs in one month and will be plenty happy with my choice to let go.
Woot!
FTR, I am down 20 pounds sine June 18th. When I started I only planned to lose 20 pounds and I gave myself until November when I go on vacation.
I have now upped that to 39 pounds (which would put me at my lowest weight in ten years).
So, halfway!
I have to think of a good present to get myself for getting to my goal. I am thinking new running shoes. Maybe an iPod armband so I can listen while I weight train.
I can make some recommendations.
The first is to substitute nonfat for low-fat dairy. A cup of skim milk is 2 points, while a cup of 1% is 3 points. You might also want to consider changing the cottage cheese to nonfat or to nonfat Greek yogurt, which will also give you a little variety if you switch flavors. This will shave a few points each day. Either way, mix in half of a serving of bran buds (All-Bran, for example) to your afternoon dairy; this will really keep you full until dinnertime.
The second is that you’re eating way too much fruit. They are not zero points because they are no- or low-calorie; they are zero points because WW wants you to make the choice to eat fruit, instead of a fiber bar. Fruit is actually loaded with calories and sugar. Eat no more than two servings of fruit per day.
Third, substitute something like sugar-free Jello for the Fiber One bar. Sugar-free Jello is very filling, and you can eat one full cup (or two of the snack cups, if you get the ready-made stuff, which I do) for zero points. This will shave another few points, fill you up, you’re not eating calories, and you’re especially not eating a sugary candy bar. (And, yes, those Fiber One bars are really nothing more than high-fiber candy bars. You’d almost be better off eating a Snickers bar.)
Fourth, I’d increase the amount of water you’re drinking. When you feel hungry, especially between meals, drink some water instead of reaching for a snack. I find this helps. You might also consider chewing gum so you taste something in your mouth.
Finally, it seems that a lot of your problem is actually psychological and completely unrelated to what you’re eating. Put yourself on a meal schedule. Eat breakfast at x time, lunch at y time and dinner at z time, and set alarms for those times. Keep the snacks for now, but work on going from, say, breakfast to lunch without snacking. Once you can do that, go from lunch to dinner without snacking. And stick to your schedule unless you can’t for social reasons. (i.e., dinner out, weddings, etc.) I’ve had to do that. It sucks, but it works.
I’m not telling you to starve yourself; far from it. I’m just getting the sense that you’re mistaking hunger for something else, and you’re obsessing about what you can’t do.
Thanks for your thoughtful post, MsRobyn. I knew it was too much fruit, but don’t know what else to eat to fill up on. Some fruit seems to make me hungrier (bananas) but some really helps with hunger (strawberries, grapes).
I think you are right that most of my problem is psychological. I don’t tolerate discomfort well, and there are so many complicated logistics involved in eating… for example we already have two kinds of milk in the house (whole for our daughter, 1% for my husband, and no he wouldn’t switch), I don’t know where we’d put a third container. Also, my husband depends on dinner as his main meal of the day, so I feel obliged to put something nice on the table blah blah blah.
Possibly my psychological problem is that I’m not in a season of my life where it’s easy or even worthwhile to put the work into losing weight. Finish having babies–get them into school–then it might be easier.
Believe me, I know it’s difficult to impossible to manage your needs and the food preferences of other people. Airman is a solid meat-and-potatoes kinda guy, and the sprog, who never met a cup of yogurt he didn’t like, refuses to eat Greek yogurt. Some things I’ve been able to work around. For example, when I make baked potatoes, I make white potatoes for them (and they’re smaller, so they’re not getting as many carbs in one meal), and a sweet potato for me. I do almost all of the cooking, which is burdensome at times, but since I can control what I cook, I can make the others bend to my will in terms of how I cook. I do the shopping, too, so I don’t buy junk food and most of the snacks I get are sugar-free. The other two can take it or leave it. They know where the convenience store is, if they feel they must eat potato chips.
That said, I’m not an asshole about it. I don’t make food they don’t like. I just make the food I cook healthier for them, and I can do what I need to to lose weight. It’s just compromise and assertiveness.
TL;DR version: Do what you can, but you also need to do what you must.
And it’s really not that hard or that inconvenient. In my next post, I’ll share some ways I keep things easy and manageable.
See, the first thing I did before I started losing weight was to get my husband on board. I explained that he was going to have to sacrifice (in terms of meals he likes and taking care of the children while I am at the gym). He readily agreed.
He didn’t realize just how hard it was going to be on him 
But, seriously, if your husband isn’t supportive you’re probably screwed.
And I don’t mean to sound all judgey here but you are starting to sound like you are making excuses…
(Off to buy me a new pair of shoes for reaching my goal!)
Oh, no doubt I’m making excuses. Tomorrow is another day though. I’ve had some other disappointments and trip-ups today that have me all mopey.
My husband is a good guy who watches his own weight. He lost 50 pounds shortly before we met, and has kept 30 off. He’d like to re-lose those twenty, but I think the truth is that we’re fat and happy right now.
I’m going to do some thinking about the situation.
One more pound, and I’ll be out of the obesity range, and officially lighter than my lowest recorded weight at my full height (senior year of high school). It seems, though, that the last 10 pounds have been way, way hard. I guess it’s because I have less to lose, but I’ve also been getting much hungrier, and more often. It’s really annoying. I mean, what I’ve been doing has been perfectly satiating for months, and now I’m constantly having to fight the urge to raid the fridge.
I’m winning, though, so there is that.
Hey, you’re going to be overweight like me! Yeah!
My multi-quoting skills suck.
Glad you didn’t get offended or mad at me. Hopefully, you can think your way to keeping on track and getting your husband on board.
Yeah, that’s not happening. I guess four hours of driving a day is a bit too much. I drove straight home from work today. I’m glad I did, because sleep is important too. For now I’ll be doing strength training 2x per week and cardio 3x per week, during my days off work. I have the rest of my life to form healthy habits so I’m not feeling too badly about where I’m starting. I just started a new job two weeks ago so there’s a lot of adjustment happening.
YAY! That is definitely something worth celebrating.
Congratulations overweight dopers! (It’ll be a looooong time until I get there.)
Nonetheless I weighed myself today and I’ve lost 14.2 pounds! 