A health, fitness, and weight-loss story.

3.04.2009

Flex Points

Yesterday was one of those days I was so hungry, I would have eaten the wallpaper off the walls...if we had wallpaper, that is. There are going to be days like that. The first two days I was on program, I experienced that.

Well, no amount of water or fluid would hold me over yesterday. So I decided to dip into my flex points. I used a whopping 10 of them.

When I did Weight Watchers before and lost 72 pounds, I ate at the top of my point range. Back then it was a range with no flex points. It switched and I just distributed the flex points to my daily allotment. So it really wasn't a change at all.

Now, it's a huge change. Why? Because my daily point target now is 34. When I pulled out my Winning Points book, I saw my range was 29-34. The same. But not really, because now I have an additional 35 points per week. So in reality, if I were to distribute those flex points like I used to, I would get 39 points per day. That freaks me out. For some reason, it seems way too high.

Now I know Weight Watchers is constantly researching their program. The numbers change based on their research and science. I need to get that through my head and not be afraid. Yet, I am very afraid of 5 extra points a day, or a free 35 points for a week. It just seems too good to be true.

I find it ironic that most days I usually have no problem hitting my target. Some days, though, I am full in the mid to upper 20 range. On those days, I force myself to eat the rest of the points. Granted, those days aren't often--I think I've had three such days like that. Then there are days like yesterday where I could have easily gone off plan and eaten a lot.

I have always believed I should listen to my body. That's why yesterday I dipped into those scary flex points. I have also always believed I should eat on the high end of points on a daily basis, because when I get thinner and have fewer points, I will really want to do that. I want my body used to losing with more.

I need to leave all the worry up to Weight Watchers and just follow their plan. I guess next Monday the scale will tell me if I should be afraid of those flex points or not.

3.03.2009

Mean/Bad Mom Award

I get the trophy today.

I woke up groggy, way too early--I need my 8 hours a night--and I was dealing with a 13-year-old boy.

At 13, my son is just learning that his parents are stupid, that he knows better or best, and that we're old and not with it. I kind of snapped at him. Not kind of, I did snap. Yesterday's math had over 100 problems, and I told him there's no way we'll do that many in a day. We broke the lesson into two days so it was more manageable. So this morning he argued with me that he finished all of yesterday's assignment. I knew better, I graded it. I just snapped.

I yelled. I used a bad word. The same bad word my mother would use when she was really pissed off. I did not, however, use his full name.

The end result was he sat down and did his math. His attention didn't lack, and he got it done in record time. In the mean time, I felt like a bad mom. I hate that.

This happened because:

1) I was in a lot of pain this morning

2) I didn't get enough sleep

3) He's a teenager and I reacted to it instead of recognizing that his arguing is a developmental thing. Calm words and direction, with clear expectations, work much better than yelling



After he finished his math, we sat down and had a talk. I apologized, he apologized. I was honest explaining I didn't feel well. That's just not good enough though--it's an excuse for my wrong behavior.

The only good thing was I did not turn to food to comfort myself. Also, I stopped and thought it through...I'm only human, and humans aren't perfect, they screw up. While I felt bad, I did not guilt myself. That serves no purpose, and when I do that, I start getting into stinking thinking and usually end up eating something in mass quantities.

My son and I discussed options for me when I'm hurting and grouchy. We both decided it would be best for me just to leave the room for a few minutes until I get my act together. It would be best for him to be quiet and listen to his old mom.

It wasn't that bad, but it wasn't one our our best moments, either.

Learn and move on.

Insomnia

Tonight it hit. I toss and turned for an hour and a half and finally got up. I popped a pill...Ambien will soon kick in. My doctor told me to go to bed immediately as they hit fast. Nope, it takes about 45 minutes for it to kick in with me.

My mind races when I go to bed. I think of so many things. I have great blog posts forming in my mind--all to be lost by the next day. lol Perhaps that's like being drunk and having a good idea only to realize it was pretty stupid when one sobers up? lol

On this journey to health I'm on, sleep is a big issue. I am a night owl by nature. When I was a baby, I had my days and nights mixed up and was pure hell on my mother. I made up for it later in life, we were very close. I used to go to bed every night at 10 and get up at 6. Now I go to bed at midnight, or close there to, and get up when I wake up. I have given up on setting an alarm because I sleep through it.

I should go have a sleep apnea study done. Honestly, the reason I haven't is I don't want people watching me sleep. What if I scratch something in my sleep? What if I expose myself? What if I fart? My husband sleeps on the couch half the time due to my snoring. (His is worse, imho.) Those all seem pretty stupid, but they are honest concerns of mine. That plus drooling, contorted face, talking in my sleep...I just don't want to do it. Besides, my husband has never heard me stop breathing in the night.

I sure never feel rested, though. The Ambien has always worked well, but now I'm feeling sluggish the next day -- kind of drugged. I don't take it very often at all.

I have a sleep hypnosis CD which helps if I can shut my mind off. The problem with that is you are supposed to wear headphones when listening to it. I do that, but then I sleep on the stupid cord and have a line running across my face. Sometimes I get the giggles over one little part of it that makes no sense. That wakes me up and takes any relaxation away.

Sometimes a bedtime snack helps. In the old days, that snack would be huge. I have three exercise points I could use. I'm not really hungry, though. I also haven't used any of my flex points. So I could have a glass of milk and a 1-point English muffin, or something light. I think I'll just wait for the pill to kick.

I hate this. I want to be a morning bird. I guess it wouldn't really matter if I were only a housewife. The thing is, I'm a homeschooling mom. I'm not a typical homeschool mom, I don't own a denim jumper. I don't go to church, but I call myself a Christian because I am. We don't homeschool for religious reasons. I have friends of all faiths and friends with no faith. I don't care as long as they're good people. Anyway, we have to start school at a decent hour.

I don't understand why when I worked, I could sleep at 10 and get up at 6. Now I can't. Is it lack of self-discipline? Is it fat related? Is that saying fat people are lazy true? HA! I don't think so, I'm anything but lazy.

Anyway, I know that a good regular sleep routine would do much for my health. It would help matters if I could get by on fewer hours, but I can't. I'm a grouchy tired person.

I'm hoping time will help this issue.

3.02.2009

Thank you, Richard Simmons


For making your videos. You make exercise fun for me.


Yes, world, I just worked out to a 30-minute video. Started out great, thought it was only 20 minutes long, had a mini-tantrum in my brain when I realized it wasn't, kept pluggnig away, got really tired the last seven minutes. BUT...I did it.


I love Richard Simmons.

First Goal Met

I met my first goal of losing 5 pounds. 21 more of those to go. =)

In losing just six pounds, I also dropped my BMI from 47 to 46.

Emotionally I'm feeling very strong.

Physically--pretty much the same. This one will take time. I have lots of pain: back, bowel, joint, etc. I need to incorporate exercise, that will help with the pain.

I'm well on my way.

I'm very determined. I'm not going for vanity (although that's a nice benefit) I'm doing this to feel better. I want my blood work to be good. I want to have a strong, healthy heart. I want to have one pain-free day. And then another. And so on. I want to be healthy.

I'm doing this solely for me. In this case, it's good to be selfish.

Monday Weigh In-Day

276.5

Down 2!!! Woo-hooo!

3.01.2009

Sliced Cheese

I'm working on my grocery list for this week, and I had planned on going to Hy-Vee instead of Wally World. The thing is, they only have Kraft 2% sliced cheese, and Wal-Mart has Borden's.

I will make an extra trip to Wal-Mart for the Borden's. It tastes that much better. Still a point a slice, it's cheesier. I think it might have a touch more fat in it. All I know is that it's good.