So long 300's

This will be a quickie since it is almost 11:00 pm, I have to finish packing for a trip, and I am only just cooking dinner now.

At my weigh in tonight - I had lost 1 more pound. This means that I finally weigh less than 300. This is kinda huge for me. After having a really rough day - this news was definitely needed.

That's all.

Change can be Exotic

You've seen the commercials I'm sure - the ones that say that Weight Watchers is a change in lifestyle, not a diet.

I for one can vouch for that. There are many ways that I am changing my life in order to fit into this program. One of the biggest areas I am seeing change though is how I cook. Now I am one of those instinctual cooks. I can adapt or even create recipies on the fly - and often times I don't even bother to measure things. I throw in what looks to be a cup. It's probably not a great way to cook - but it sure does taste good.

Now that I am on WW, I've found that I need to change my ways. I need to find ways to make recipies healthy but flavorful. This is hards because it means switching over to using things like reduced fat cheese, fat free plain yogurt, wheat flour, etc. Things that I know are better for me - but that I have somehow drilled in my head do not taste as good. But I must overcome this food prejudice.

So last night I decided to try a WW recipie I found for Chicken Tikka Masala. (You can find the recipie here http://www.weightwatchers.com/food/rcp/index.aspx?recipeid=96061)

I've never made Indian food, but I have to say that I do love eating it. Well, Thinking of Chicken Tikka Masala made me also hungry for the Indian spinach dish Palak Paneer. Paneer is this yummy Indian soft cheese by curdling whole milk by adding in Lemon Juice. Apparently you can totally make it at home, but it requires a lot of straining and pressing - which takes time and space - something that I didn't really have last night. Plus there is the your totally eating whole milk which defeats the healthiness of the spinach.

But I really wanted Palak Paneer. Luckily Laughing Cow Cheese wedges came to my rescue. So for all of you - here is Emily's healthy adaptation of Palak Paneer.

Emily's Palak Paneer

Ingredients:
4 tsp. canola oil
2 wedges Laughing Cow Light Creamy Cheese Wedges (traditional flavor)
2 tsp. cumin
2 cups Spinach
1 cup Onion
1 tsp. minced garlic
Salt
Pepper
Crushed Red Pepper

Preparation:
1) Heat up 2 tsp. of canola oil in frying pan. Cut up cheese wedges into little bits (6-8 bits each wedge). When oil hot, throw in cheese bits. Move cheese around in pan so doesn't stay in one spot - either using a spoon or by shaking the pan. After 3 minutes, sprinkle cumin over all cheese. Keep moving cheese for another 1-2 minutes. Transfer cheese to plate and set aside.

2) Wash and Dry spinach. You can either cut Spinach into medium chunks or use whole. Thinly slice small to medium onion so that you have 1 cup of thin onion slices. Mince up garlic (or if you are lazy like me, use already minced garlic from a jar).

3) Pour remaining 2 tsp. of canola oil into same frying pan, coat bottom of pan. When hot, throw in onions and garlic. Cook over medium heat until onions begin to look yellow and soft. Toss in Spinach. Stir onion, garlic, and spinach together until Spinach begins to wilt (about 2-3 minutes). Toss cheese back into pan with spinach and onions. Mix together and cook for another 2 minutes.

4) Season mixture with kosher salt, pepper, and crushed hot pepper (this final pepper is optional - it all depends if you want to add a bit of spice). Serve.

Now I ate all of my palak paneer, but I'm sure this could also be split into two servings. I just happened to be really hungry last night.

Hope you enjoy this healthy version of Palak Paneer.

Tracking My Progress

I've been trying to track the progress of my weight loss through various methods. One way is obviously tracking of weight. But you can also track by looking at how your clothes are fitting, and also by your general physical appearance. I have a tendency to lose weight in my face first. Anyways, now that I have a digital camera, I've been trying to track my weight loss through pictures.

Anyways, luckily I had some pictures taken in late November, just before I started this - so they are now my before pictures. I'm obvious the one on the left. The lady on my right is my dear old abuelita (lil' grandma in Spanish). As you can see, I am trying to disguise from the world my size by wearing black. It obviously did not work.

So here I am in February. Right after I got my new digital camera.

I really don't look that different from November. At this point I had only lost about 2-2.5 pounds. Yikes - look at that double chin thing I'm sporting.

But look here - we have progress. At least I think so.

This is about 5 pounds into the process. See the cheeks - they are a wee bit leaner. Shoulders may be a bit smaller too. Woo! And although I think this picture shows progress - I don't really like it.

Finally, this was taken a few weeks ago. Probably at about 8 pounds lost. But you can definitely see I'm losing weight (hence why it gets to be a bigger picture). Anyways - since then I have cut and dyed my hair and lost another 2 pounds. This was the first photo I've seen where I actually noticed any bit of significant change in my features. Anyways, hopefully I will have some new photos up after my trip to Savannah.

8 Medium Cantaloupes

This Wednesday marked losing my 10th pound. Actually - when you take into account that my first two weeks on Weight Watchers I ended up gaining about 2 pounds, I've actually lost a little bit over 12, but the net result since I have started is that I have lost 10.2 pounds. Here are some other things that weigh 10 pounds:

• 11.5 yards of heavy blue jean denim
• 10 boxes of butter
• 8 medium cantaloupes
• 2 sacks of potatoes
• 1 very big baby

Obviously it doesn't really look like I've suddenly taking 8 cantaloupes off my body or given birth to a very big baby (God help the women who do). But putting the weight into these images help me keep into context the amount of weight I have lost. It would be hard to carry around all the time 10 boxes of butter, but essentially that was what I was doing, but instead of that butter being in plastic grocery bag - it was spread out among my waist, my hips, my butt, my boobs, and my face. It's actually a horrific image when you start to think about it.

One of the reasons that I like Weight Watchers is that the goal is to change your lifestyle - not to just diet. Having worked in the cafeteria at an all women's college, I know get the hives when I hear the word diet. You would often hear girls saying, "I am totally going to gain 10 pounds because I put fat free cream cheese on my bagel. I need to go on a diet." Ok - that is a total exaggeration, but I did hear things like this - most often coming from these tiny tiny girls whose figures I would love to have myself. I think for a long time in my head I was thinking - "Screw that. I want to enjoy my food." So I ate what I wanted and when I wanted, finally ending up weighing 310 pounds in January. But the whole point of Weight Watchers is so you don't end up freaking out over consuming a tsp of mayo on your sandwhich. You figure out substitutions that don't change the taste, you eat freasher foods, and you make sure that you exercise. And pretty soon you find that these things make you feel better than eating 10 oreos.

If you think about it - it's really a mental game. One of the toughest mental games you will ever play. I've just happened to score 10 points on my opponent.

Actually Surprised

So yesterday was my WW weigh in and I actually managed to surprise myself. Despite my lack of sleep, questionable food choices, not logging in what I eat, and a whole slew of WW sins I committed last week - I managed to lose 1.8 pounds. This means I have lost a total of 9.6 pounds from when I started (woo hoo - only .4 pounds away from the 10 pound mark) andI am no 1.2 pounds away from saying goodbye to the 300's.

Getting below the 300 mark will be exciting for me. The last time I was there was after my first boyfriend broke up with me in 2002/2003. My friend Stacey then got me to join the gym at work a little before he broke up with me and I had been going there for a while. At that point I weighed something like 275. Anyways - after we broke up, I kinda threw myself into working out and actually got below the 250's (how exciting). Then I lost my job (qual tragedy). This also meant that I lost my gym. I think I was more upset about losing that gym than I was over the job. I eventually did get rehired by my company after a week or too, but I was put at a different location. It made it harder to go to the gym and join my friends. So instead of bucking up and being Ms. Independent - I quit going. Obviously that didn't work since I ended up gaining something like 60 pounds or something like that. So I will be very excited when I finally pass that 10 pound mark as well as that 300 pound mark.

Next week will also mark my 16th week on WW. 16 seems like such a small number, although really its 4 months. It could also be because this has probably been some of the toughest 4 months of my life. But it's been totally worth it.

Yesterday in my email I got an ad for a 5K race in Baltimore. I am not really a runner, although I think I could get into it. I've always been a little frightened of running because I was afraid it would set off my asthma. Of course, my asthma gets better as I lose weight. My ex boyfriend was a runner (this is the evil ex boyfriend, not the boyfriend that I actually miss) and he never really encouraged me to join him, but while we were dating and I was going to the gym (see above) I began to build up my running capabilities on the treadmill. Anyways, I would obviously have to start over from scratch, but I think I could train to do this. I may not run my entire first 5K, but I can definitely do a combo walk/run. That 5K will be on June 14th and benefits the American Red Cross. If you would like to join me, please visit http://images.membersforlife.org/rccm/lp.php?pg=1207679639&ooc=07e5127aa866171b9d633380a5545172-1262

Set Backs

This last week I have been feeling less than motivated in my health efforts. I know, I know, I have invested way too much into this to just give up now. It could be the allergies that are attacking my sinuses, it could be the blah weather, it could be that I went to my friend's birthday and got to have cake, sweet, cake and am now left with a serious SUGAR craving.

I miss sugar. Not as much as I miss my boyfriend, but I do really miss it. Of course, before this whole getting healthy experiement, sugar would be one of those things I would go for when I was feeling blue. Because seriously, you can't feel blue when you are ingesting a bazillion calories of processed sugar cane, especially when it is pink and in the shape of a pretty flower. But now I have to be careful about it because it turns out that sugar is a lot like crack. You have one sugary treat and then you need another and another and pretty soon I will have gained back all the weight I have lost and then some. No, I am NOT going to do that.

I have also been lax on my exercising. Not good. But like I said, allergies have hit me pretty hard and its been hard to breath. But since I've stopped exercising, I've noticed that I fall asleep later and I wake up later, and I move throughout the day all slow. It's really not good.

I have also not been a good food tracker. Yup, that too. It's like lately I have violated the 3 basic sins of Weight Watchers. But I want to get back on track. I think to do that, I may start posting what I am eating on this blog - just so everybody in the world can see what I am eating. So far today it's been 2 string cheese sticks and a WW soft bake chocolate chip cookie (breakfast of champions I'm sure). I have drunk 1 bottle of water (of which now I have to be afraid of the plastic compounds seeping into my system, thus making a third head grow out of my abdomen - Thanks TODAY Show). But my co-workers and I have ordered salads from a new salad place and that is better than eating pizza from the cafeteria. And today is weigh in. Earlier this week I was thinking I would go with my "Get out of Jail" card and not weigh in, but today I am feeling that I need to hold myself accountable and if that means that I gained back 2 pounds, then I need to see that.

I so want a quarter pounder

First a little background information on me:

Right before Christmas I lost someone I love, someone who no one expected to die because he was young. I didn't really want to talk about that experience here because it's just not the place. Here is what is pertinent about his death though - Neither he nor I were taking very good care of ourselves. We ate out a lot - especially foods that were pasta-y, cheesey, meaty (I probably did that more than him), and not very vegetable-y. We drank our fair share of soda and other sugary drinks. We fell asleep in front of the tv, and we didn't really exercise. Needless to say his death served as a kick in the pants. I joined Weight Watcher's on January 2nd and have been trying to improve my health. But like my leader says, "you didn't put on all this weight in a week, you're not going to take it off in a week."

I'm going to be honest with y'all. I started out WW weighing 310.8 pounds. To date I have lost a net 8.8 pounds. I'm obviously hoping that I will eventually lose a lot more.

Some days are really hard and in order to keep me on track I have to ask myself, "Am I ready to join my boy in heaven?" The answer is a difinitive NO.

We've been talking about triggers recently at WW. Trigger foods, Trigger events, Trigger feelings. Today I am having trigger feelings. If this was the SATs, the question: I am having family issues today which are making me feel a) worried b) angry c) guilty d) ALL OF THE ABOVE. The correct answer would be D. And that really makes me want a quarter pounder. But if I get a quarter pounder I will want some fries. And then I will want a quarter pounder this weekend, and then another one all next week. It'll just snowball, and next thing you know I will be back up 8.8 or more pounds.

Instead, I opted to drink water. A lot of water. And chew gum. And I chose to write in my blog. And now that I have gotten this all out, I feel a lot better. Although - maybe tonight I will buy a box of the new WW double chocolate snack bars. Those are delish - and there aren't a lot of things that even a little bit of chocolate won't make better.