I’m currently doing Weight Watchers, and every week I blog a bit about what I’ve learned and experienced, and whether I’ve lost or gained weight for the week.

Right, so, Weight Watchers!

I haven’t fallen off the wagon, exactly, but the summer time daylight hours and friends doing terribly interesting things have made me less inclined to get to meetings to weigh in. Also, summer time eating has made me relax my efforts a bit, and I had to ask myself if I’m ok with this.

I am.

There are times when I’m go-go-go! and loosing weight like a bad-ass, and times when it feels overwhelming to turn down potato salad.  We’re in one of those times for me and I’m not going to be happy fighting it that hard, so I’m just not.

I’m holding steady at 169.8 as of last weigh in. That’s a gain of .8 since last we talked, but I’m still in that “one sixty something”. I can totally live with that for the summer and, in fact, if I don’t hit “one fifty something” until the fall, I’m ok with this, too.

The best part of summer, of course, is the weather! All the warmth and extended daylight hours has made walking so much fun, and it’s helping to mitigate the “barbeque damage”. So is are the heaps of fresh fruit available.

How are YOU doing? I haven’t checked in with anyone in a while.

photo

I’m currently doing Weight Watchers, and every week I blog a bit about what I’ve learned and experienced, and whether I’ve lost or gained weight for the week.

Today is Thursday, normally the day I write about what happened in Weight Watchers, but they moved my meeting location, I forgot, didn’t bring the new address, and ended up wandering around for a while before I got an iced coffee and just went home again.

I’m bummed!

So I’ll ask a question instead: what should I eat for lunch? All of a sudden, I can’t think of anything. It got really hot really fast here in New York (Like, freakishly fast. I was wearing heavy pants last week, and now I’m running around my apartment in a tank top and still sweaty!) I feel like it’s too hot to eat anything requiring a stove or oven. Salads are an obvious choice, and I’ve had a few, but I need something to really sink my teeth into. The only things that appeal to me are crappy beer, iced coffee and frozen yogurt. And oranges, thankfully, but still.

P.S. Totally brilliant idea for keeping yourself in salads here, which is where I got the photo.

Smarty people, hit me with your ideas!

I’m currently doing Weight Watchers, and every week I blog a bit about what I’ve learned and experienced, and whether I’ve lost or gained weight for the week.

After skipping a week I went in for a weigh-in this past Tuesday and was down 2.4 pounds. Pretty good for two weeks!

This means a few things: It’s a new “decade” for me, I now weigh “one SIXTY something” (169.0). I touched the point of having lost 10% of my starting body weight (18.9 pounds) – a big milestone in Weight Watchers – and I actually PASSED that milestone and have lost 20.4 which happens to be just about what my dog Tino weighs. I’m down by a Tino!

I feel good, but my favorite belt is too big now!

I’m currently doing Weight Watchers, and every week I blog a bit about what I’ve learned and experienced, and whether I’ve lost or gained weight for the week.

I’m down this week; 2.2 pounds lost. It would be more exciting if most of it wasn’t courtesy of a balls-to-the-wall stomach flu that rocked me Saturday. The week was going well up to that point anyway, so hey, I’ll be a little proud, and I’ll enjoy being the lightest ever since I first started (171.4) but I’m already counting on gaining at least a little weight next week as I start to eat normally again.

It’s ok; I’ve found a plateau and I know it. It’s an unfair phenomenon that the more weight one looses, the harder one has to work to loose weight! So, in an effort to work harder, and because I’m trying to eliminate the migraines I’ve been dealing with, I’m doing Pilates.

Pilates, by the way, is shockingly hard. I found a DVD, but not the coordination to go along with it. A challenge was expected, the “falling over, can’t reach this, can’t bend that, totally out of breath” thing was NOT. It’s pretty upsetting, actually, and I don’t know what to do. Quitting scares me; it’s never going to be easier than it is right now to start, and I really need to do this.

Maybe I’m a yoga person?

I’m currently doing Weight Watchers, and every week I blog a bit about what I’ve learned and experienced, and whether I’ve lost or gained weight for the week.

ice cream from Berthillon

Remember the part where I said I was going to track everything I ate in Paris?

That didn’t happen. Between the cat herding and jet-lag, it got shoved to the back of my mind, and I didn’t really think about it until day 3 or so. Then I just didn’t bother. I know. I’m ashamed of me, too.

It’s really not a good strategy to say “oh, I’ll just be careful”, but I did, and the combination of being mindful of what I ate and all the walking had me down .2 pounds, so now I’m 173.6. This isn’t so great, but, come on. I vacationed in Paris for a week and I lost weight. I’ll take it!

***

I went to a massage therapist recently, one of those wonderful hippie-intellectuals who views massage as a treatment, not just something rich people do to spoil themselves (case in point: it wasn’t so much relaxing as mildly painful, but in a good way.) I get these awful headaches all the time, in one place in particular. I guessed that they are muscular in nature and born in my back muscles; she agreed. Specifically, they are a result of a crooked and extremely short torso (my ribcage sits almost inside of my pelvis). There’s not a damn thing I can do about the shortness (curse you, African genetics!), but the crookedness is mostly a lack of muscle tone. I can help it “tremendously” with Pilates, she said.

And so I am exercising. We’ll see how this goes!

I’m currently doing Weight Watchers, and every week I blog a bit about what I’ve learned and experienced, and whether I’ve lost or gained weight for the week.

A Pabst on my friend’s rooftop to celebrate the first warm day in Brooklyn.

I changed my mind; I’m going to tell you how much I weigh. I’ve explained before that I wouldn’t, not because it’s a secret but because I didn’t want to be difficult to relate to by readers who have much more or much less weight they’d like to loose than I do.

Using real numbers is easier. Still, I hope you know that whether you have 200 pounds to loose or 10, it’s still the same process, the same science of calories in vs. calories out, and the same feelings of disappointment, struggle, and joy.

I’m currently 173.8 pounds. I started Weight Watchers at 191 and have gotten as high as 197 in the past.

Ok, here’s my update:

If you recall, I went to South by Southwest, ate just about everything I could get my hands on, came home, and found I lost weight because of all the walking I did. The week after, in the post-conference lull, I was having a hard time loosing the “eat whatever I want!” mentality, and that, minus all the walking, meant a big bad gain (4.4 pounds, which is huge for me). Now I’m coming down from that (I lost 2.2 this week, having skipped the week before), but I’m still not where I was at my all time low of 171.6.

I’m glad for the loss this Tuesday, though; last week was flat out difficult! The weather getting warmer made me want to drink a lot of cold beers and I went over Points. So, I’m buttoned down and being very strict this week, especially since NEXT week is going to involve a lot of vacation eating (although, thankfully, a lot of vacation walking, too).

I’ve been sort of stuck for a while, and when you are stuck, it’s time to uptick your efforts. Therefore, even though it might be a little difficult: I’m tracking on vacation! And I’m telling you this, because now if I don’t do it, I’ll be embarrassed and have to admit it. So it’s out there.

Of course, I will let you know how it goes.

p.s. You would totally be able to see the Twin Towers in that photo if they were still standing. Sad face.

I’m currently doing Weight Watchers, and every week I blog a bit about what I’ve learned and experienced, and whether I’ve lost or gained weight for the week.

Sticking with friends is the key to my success.

It was time to haul myself onto the scale Tuesday night. It had been weeks, and there had been parties, pastries, dinners, brunches, drinks-drinks-drinks and a whole lot of barbecue in Austin. Oh, and my birthday, which involved cinnamon rolls. Nerve-wracking! It was good news, though: down 2.2 since the beginning of the month (my last weigh in), 17.8 total!

It proved that I could take a few days on a vacation to relax the rules and it wouldn’t completely derail my progress. I won’t do it again, though. Success for me means tracking everything I eat, a habit that took a long time to form and only a few days to almost completely break. Getting back into it has been a drag.

I’ll attribute my success to focusing more on friends and new networking contacts and less on the food and drinks, switching to water earlier than normal, walking everywhere, and lots of dancing.

So, how are YOU doing?

Well, I did it. And you guys were right… Brussels sprouts are really good!

First I washed them in our trusty one-armed colander. Rob and I can’t quite bring ourselves to replace it.

Then I cut off the tough-looking bottoms, where they attached to the stalk, and halved them. This made some of the outer leaves fall off. I saved them.

The bunched up layers of leaves made excellent olive oil holders.

In addition to the olive oil, I tossed them with salt and paprika, because I always roast things with salt and paprika, and I figured a good way to ease into trying a new veggie is to prepare them in a familiar way.

I dumped them in a pan…

…and roasted them at 450 until they looked like this. I don’t really know how long. It was about one episode of People’s Court with the commercials fast-forwarded through.

I ended up eating the whole pan for lunch on Friday, which put me in the lamest and stupidest of lame and stupid food comas.

The leaves that I’d thrown in ended up super flavorful and delicious.

I now have a new vegetable to add to dinners. Next I’ll try them in butter and brown sugar and then I’ll sautee them with garlic to see how that works, too.

Thank you!

I’m currently doing Weight Watchers, and every week I blog a bit about what I’ve learned and experienced, and whether I’ve lost or gained weight for the week.

I had a more relaxed set of efforts these past two weeks, including staying out until the wee hours of the morning on Saturday, drinking what I swear were two but Rob informs me are four whiskey sours. There was also a peanut brittle incident.

Still, in the past two weeks (skipped last week’s meeting) I’m down .8, making me the lowest I’ve been since I started. I am happy and proud.

Our meeting this week was about trying new foods and activities so we don’t get bored, timely since I have Brussels sprouts sitting in my fridge right now. I’d have never bought them BECAUSE THEY ARE GROSS, but you all commented on my last Weight Watchers post that they are awesome.

We’ll see, internet. We’ll see.

I’m currently doing Weight Watchers, and every week I blog a bit about what I’ve learned and experienced, and whether I’ve lost or gained weight for the week.

This week held no great insights, major set-backs or glowing victories. Just a small one: I’m down .8 pounds. My efforts are slowing, and I know what needs to happen next to shake it up, but I just… I don’t want to!

I’ve mentioned it before: exercise and I are not friends. I’ve been walking, though, which is a good activity that doesn’t require a special bra to hold down “the thunder”. And spring is coming! That means we’ll be walking to Prospect Park for off-leash hours with the trio.

I’m also making an effort to eat more vegetables. Kale and chard have been my favorites lately, and I’ve been adding dried cranberries to my salads because they’re really fun and less gross than raisins.

Do you have non-awful exercise activities you like to do? Kick-ass veggie dishes you can share?

photo from Tartelette