What I Love about WeightWatchers

I started WeightWatchers again at the end of April. A few years ago (that long, really?), I lost 75 pounds but gained 35 of it back. Since January I'd been trying to diet on my own with no success. I was still gaining weight, eating everything in sight, and was miserable. Finally, I realized that going through the pain of controlling my eating was actually going to make me happy.

The new Pointsplus system is wonderful. I really love it. It made the transition from eating anything all the time to counting points painless. When I felt the need to supplement the size of a meal or snack between meals, I could 'indulge' in fruits and vegetables all I wanted. Since then, I've limited the snacks between meals but still 'fill up' at meal time when I need to.

I've also found that I love taking walks. What started out as a 1-mile walk around the neighborhood is now nearly a 2-mile walk around two neighborhoods. We have yet to check the mileage on the second part of the walk to make sure it's 2 miles. Today I added wrist weights to my walk. Unfortunately, Harper, our dog, is more interested in the sights and smells of his experience rather than the exercise. We can't get out the door without him, yet he won't keep up!! Dumb dog.

So, last Monday was Memorial Day. We had 2 picnics planned for the day although I tried to separate the days. The church picnic was at noon and Christy and her family came over in the evening. For the ward picnic, Dierburgs chicken was served. I went to the picnic with the idea I would have a piece, then look for other healthy foods to eat along-side. I knew there would be fruit at least. I knew I wouldn't even try the potato salad as it's 1 point per bite. I don't love potato salad that much. So I filled my plate-or rather overfilled my plate- with green salad, fruit, and a chicken breast. I didn't think about desert ahead of time but saw that someone had brought Angelfood cake. On the old points system, Angelfood cake was low in points, so I thought it would be a good desert choice. I ate the salad and the fruit, but was satisfied enough not to want the chicken, but I ate it anyway. I didn't eat just half, either, but the whole piece. It was a big piece. Then I had half the Angelfood cake. Rick and I shared the piece. Although very full, I was pleased with my food choices and didn't feel deprived at all. But we stayed too long and too much food was left on the tables. I asked Garrett to get me a rice krispy treat. He did and got me a piece twice the size I pictured. Ugh. I ate half! But then I ate the other half.

When I got home, I felt lost in not knowing what to do and feeling like I'd already blown it, I ate one of Garrett's homemade chocolate chip cookies. Yes, just one, believe it or not. Other than the stupid rice krispy treat and chocolate chip cookie, I did pretty good. If you'd seen the amount of food left on the table when we left, you would have been proud of me for not grazing. The problem came with the second BBQ picnic. I planned well. Christy and Greg brought pork chops and hot dogs for their family. We had chicken and sugar-free jello. We dispensed with the potato salad but had chips instead. Chips aren't a weakness for me, but I did buy some WeightWatchers chips and had some of those. We also had cut-up fruit and lettuce salad left from the earlier picnic. Christy brought some baked beans and Greg made a meatball appetizer.

Here we are facing dinner and I'm not hungry. Looking back, I should have stopped then and there and thought about what to do. Instead I barged ahead and ate. Greg made a comment about it being a holiday and should be able to eat. To an extent, he's right. I should be able to enjoy a special dish or treat on a special day. At this point I'm not too worried about what I ate. I didn't do too bad in that regard. What disappoints me is the fact that I ate at all. I knew I wasn't hungry. I didn't enjoy the meal. I ate because I felt a social pressure to do so. I didn't exercise control.

So I look back at that moment when I realized I wasn't hungry and see now what a pivotal moment it was. It was then that I needed to make new decisions. Prior to the day I choose good food to serve, but at the moment another change needed to be made. Now I just need to decide what that change should have been. I could have not eaten at all-but I don't know that I could have made that drastic of a decision. I could have put less on my plate-which I could have done by not eating the meatballs and baked beans (again another social decision). I think I could have made a plate for myself to eat later or even the next day. It's not a mute point even though I did none of the above because I realize now that the most important step would have been for me to listen to the voice that said, "I'm not hungry" and stop to evaluate the situation rather than barging forward with original plans.

Rick and I took a 2-mile walk that night and today I'm down another pound. I couldn't be more thrilled. Obviously my over-all food choices were good in spite of the oopses along the way. More importantly, though, was spotting that moment in time where I could have made a better decision and increased my control over my eating. Having food boundaries allows me to feel good about myself both by losing weight and feeling in control of my life. This is what WeightWatchers has done for me.

Last Saturday I reached my 5% goal. I was hoping to have lost the entire 35 pounds I'd gained back by the time Britta and Matt came to visit in August. Now they're not coming. I still have the goal, but not the reward!!

I love spring!

I feel like I live in an aviary. I open the windows or step outside and hear the call of so many birds. Some squawk, some tweet, and other trill, but all together it's a beautiful symphony. I sat outside to eat my lunch and savored the sounds as they swirled around me. The rumble and beeping of the garbage truck added a bass while percussion was dominated by unseen crickets and other pests. It was glorious!

Since the weather has been so nice the past few days, I've been walking around the block for my morning exercise rather than climbing on the treadmill or pumping the elliptical. It's been a feast for my senses as I walk along the trail that parallels the stream. Again, the sounds of the wildlife, the feel of the cool air against my skin, catching a glimpse of squirrels and geese, and smelling the freshness of the world. My walk has definitely been more than physically rejuvenating.

I decided to open all the windows and let the house air out. But as I opened the blinds, dust flew everywhere and naturally I started sneezing. I spent the next two days cleaning blinds and windows-and that's just on the main floor. So now everyone is asking me if it's spring cleaning time. No! It's not. Cleaning doesn't thrill me in the least. Spring cleaning is one of the dreaded times of year. But once my windows were clean, the thought of all the dust and dirt in my carpets made my skin crawl. So in the next day or two I plan to get them cleaned. My list of chores around the house suddenly grew three times its size. But it's not spring cleaning. It just happens to be spring (yea!) and I'm cleaning.

On my list to do today is to bottle the two turkeys I baked yesterday and Garrett so graciously de-boned for me, fold the four loads of laundry that I washed on Monday, wash the last two windows on the main floor--being the ones in the office, plan a menu using only food storage, and go to a friend's oven demonstration for lunch. Yet here I sit trying to convince myself to get up and get to work. My legs are still tired from my walk.

I'm almost done!

I forgot completely that I even had a blog. I haven't looked at it or thought about it in months. I happened to stumble across it today and realized how long it's been since I've written anything!

I'm five weeks away from graduation--four weeks of class and a week of finals. That includes papers, tests, reading, more papers and the list goes on and on and on! I'm tired just thinking about it!

Graduation is on May 15 at 10 a.m. I already received my cap and gown and announcements. It only made me have senior-itis even more. I have mixed feelings, actually. I'm excited to be done, but I keep hearing about classes I'd love to take. I don't want to stop the learning and achieving. School has to stop though, for awhile. Rick has supported me so well in order for me to complete this degree, but all the while he's been working on his post-graduate degree himself. Yes, life has been very crazy around here. We've agreed that I would wait to continue my education until he is done with his. One of us being in school is a strain, but both of us has been pretty stressful.

Since nobody reads this anyway, I guess I can boast. I am getting an award from the American Studies program. It's pretty cool. The dean told me that I was considered to be the valedictorian speaker, but decided to go with someone in the night school instead. I don't mind in the least. I'm not all that thrilled about speaking in public. I will graduate Suma Cum Laude (4.0 g.p.a.) and University honors. I've worked hard for this, basically to prove to myself that I can.

Except that if I don't get on to doing my homework, I won't get the grades I expect!

Finished at last! No school for three whole weeks. Yea!

I've been busy this week madly preparing for Garrett's Eagle Court of Honor. I'm using a modified version of the script used at Robert's Eagle Court of Honor, then had to make further modifications when I learned that the Wildlife Bird Sanctuary, whom I invited to attend and share with the audience one of the wild birds (hopefully an eagle). Due to time constraints, they need to make their presentation at the beginning of the program rather than at the end.

I wish I had had better options for scheduling, but there didn't seem to be any. I needed at least three months from the time he earned it to write and receive letters, etc. on his behalf, but I also worried about my school workload, so wanted to wait until school was done. I didn't want to wait until the first of the year, which seem too far away. But December 19 isn't the best choice for dates right before Christmas when everyone already has plans. So I don't expect a lot of people to be there.

I've been rushing to put together a scrapbook and a video presentation for the court of honor. The scrapbook is all his letters, certificates, project information and pictures, merit badges and so forth that deal with obtaining his eagle. The video presentation is pictures of him growing up. It's been fun looking at all the pictures, but more than that, it's been fun being reminded of what a special young man he is.

I created a pattern for a gingerbread castle, partially created, that is. I found a picture of a gingerbread castle on-line and made up a pattern. I made two batches of dough and plan to get it rolled out and baked this morning. On Sunday afternoon, Britta and Matt (yea, Matt!) and Emmaline are coming over. We're decorating our gingerbread houses together. We've done this for the last couple of years and it's been a lot of fun.

Thanks to Amazon and free two-day shipping, Rick and I have done most of our Christmas shopping last Sunday. Packages are arriving daily already. The boys may be disappointed, but we're having mostly a 'family Christmas' this year. We're not giving too much in the way of individual gifts, but gifts for the whole family to enjoy. Christmas is only 9 days away! Yikes!

Making Up for Lost Time

Writing in a blog is as bad as writing in my journal. I think I last wrote a few months ago. When I finally make time to write, there's too much to say and I get overwhelmed, so don't write anything at all!

Well, the best news is that the semester is nearly over. Today I added another honors class to my load with the idea that I'm lightening next semester's schedule. So I'm at 18 credit hours with twelve of them honors. Thank goodness there's only five weeks left. Yea!

Monday is registration for next semester. I've ended up with more English classes than I realized and found that with what I plan to take next semester, I can get a minor in creative writing. I just don't know how to go about it. That's pretty exciting though.

Britta informed us yesterday that Matt got his orders and is being sent to Korea--without her. She was devastated. But like her, she started thinking of the positives, as miserable as the situation is. I was really proud of her. Her baby is due May 2. I hope that Matt is able to come home for the baby's birth. Matt told Britta that the air force is usually pretty good about that kind of thing, so we'll remember them in our prayers.

Halloween was a lot of fun again this year. Last year we had a lot of friends over for a murder mystery party. The decorations were really cool and there was lots of food. This year I couldn't bring myself to plan a big party, but told Rick and Robert if they wanted to decorate, they could. They did, but on Halloween, I helped them re-decorate. We had friends over and played board games. It was so fun. We played Balderdash, a game of lying and Pit, a card trading game. I haven't played either in years. Pit got so loud that Spencer, who was watching TV upstairs, came down complaining he couldn't hear the TV. And as usual, there were too many treats!

Rick's dad passed away on October 13. Although expected, it's still sad to think that we'll never see him again-in this life anyway. His wife, Johnie, had his body cremated and will hold a memorial sometime in the next month. We plan to go. They live in McAllen, Texas, near the Mexican border.

The weather has gone from being unseasonably cold to unseasonably rainy and now it's unseasonably warm. Guess which one I like best!

General Conference

This weekend was both relaxing and uplifting. To have an excuse not to do homework but instead sit in front of the TV is pretty nice. But to also listen to the prophet and apostles was a wonderful experience. I thought that conference, true to form, followed a general pattern of similar talks making it seem like there was a theme. It was being like Christ through loving others as well as being bold in sharing testimony. Britta also noted a similar theme, but her idea of the theme and mine were totally different! I though that was funny. Obviously we were each hearing what is important to us and on what we need to follow through. Listening to conference really brought a feeling of peace into my heart and home.

Rick and Robert are at Bob and Johnnie's house. They will be leaving around mid-night to come home. I miss them and will be glad to have them here, but I also know it's hard for Rick to leave with the idea that he may never see his father again in this life. Although his voice was strong yesterday, his body has lost so much strength and he's having to take quite a bit of pain medication. As a result, Bob slept most of the time today. Any time at all to visit is worth while. While there, Rick and Robert went to the ocean. I'm so jealous!!! I would love to go there during Christmas break and take the boys and just spend time playing. But I also want to go see Skip and Moira and Christy, Wayne and the kids. They are all in different directions!

Done With Week 6

Rick and Robert are on their way to Texas to visit Rick's dad. His dad has cancer and probably won't live too much longer, but is receiving excellent care from his wife. At previous visits we've found them to be happy, cheerful and grateful for friends. It has been pretty amazing to me to find them in such good spirits in spite of the gravity of their situation.

I could have gone with Rick rather than have Robert go, but chose to stay home and do homework instead. Now that they're gone I regret my decision and want them to come home and get me! I miss the opportunity to have alone time with my hubby and they get to go play in the ocean! I'm really, really jealous. I had such a good time when Rick and I went last time.

Such is the commitment I've made for school. Ugh. As mentioned on Facebook, Tuesday I left class early due to inappropriate scenes from an R-rated movie being shown in class. Obviously I need to think about R-rated movies being freely shown and be proactive in making arrangements. But it was surprised upon us and I didn't even think of asking about the rating. I will from now on.

I didn't make a big deal of it. I e-mailed the prof. and he offered an alternate assignment, but said the objectionable part was over with. I opted to finish the movie, as in that case the alternate was also rated R. Like most R-rated movies, it was good except for the 'dog poop' in middle. The movie was 'Deliverance' with Burt Reynolds.

This weekend, besides ton of reading, I have two tests to study for, two essays to write and hope to get started on my second of three honors projects. I hope to complete the honors projects by the end of October leaving November free for term papers and finals. That's my plan anyway. If I don't make it, I'll be pretty close, anyway!