Time to hit the reset button.

So I haven't blogged in awhile as you can tell. That's because things are not as I have wanted them to be. I have come to a standstill with my weight loss. All you wonderful people that have encouraged me by saying I've hit a plateau, I appreciate the thoughts, but really I haven't. I wish. Also, those of you saying that I'm building muscle and that's why I haven't lost, thanks. I appreciate the sentiments, but really it's just because I have not been eating like I should. That's it, end of discussion. You don't eat what you are supposed to WHAM, nothing happens.

Now, I must say I am very proud of myself for several reasons. The first being, I would have quit weight watchers at this point in my previous life and I haven't this time. I keep going. I have great friends in my 815 meeting. They are more than friends now, they are my family. I have a wonderful friend named, Melissa B, (not me). She just reached her WW goal a couple of weeks ago. I have really loved getting to know her. (She is pictured below on the left, with our other WW friend Kim, on the day she hit her goal). There is something that she has said that has really stuck with me. She has said this more than once, but it really stuck with me two weeks ago when she said it at the meeting where she hit her goal. She said that she thinks of every Saturday as a time to hit the RESET button. She doesn't look back, just hits RESET, and is ready for her new week. That particular meeting when she said this, I had come in late (because I didn't want to be there) and decided not to weigh in (because I didn't want to deal with the numbers on the scale), but I am glad I did because what she said is exactly what I needed to hear. I decided right then and there to hit my RESET button and not look back.

I would love to say I lost weight the next week, but I didn't and when I showed up this past Saturday I knew I had to weigh in no matter what the number was. Anyway, my coach really didn't give me a choice. He told me to weigh in and text him my weight. UGH. I didn't want to, but I had already hit the reset button and knew what was done was done and just looked forward to what I would do from now on. My weigh in was not pretty. In the two weeks I had gained 3 pounds, but I faced it, I went to my meeting, texted my coach, and hit the RESET button.

After texting my coach, I got this text from him. It really meant a lot to me (I am putting it in all caps not because he yelled at me, but so it stands out) He said: YOU NEED TO BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN BE UNDER 200 POUNDS BEFORE YOU GET THERE. DON'T SABOTAGE YOURSELF. EVERYONE WILL LOVE YOU STILL. EVERYONE WILL LOVE YOU MORE! BELIEVE YOU CAN DO IT FIRST. Wow, this hit so many things on the head. I have been trying to figure out, after hitting another milestone in my weight loss, why I sabotage myself? I think he hit it on the head. I think that I am afraid that people will treat me differently, and that my world will change in ways I'm not sure I am ready for. I want to be loved for who I am and not because I'm thinner. This text was so encouraging to me. It took him a few seconds to type, but really changed my thinking. It was time to hit the RESET button in my brain.

I am also proud of myself because despite the not so great eating, despite sabotaging myself, I kept working out. I kept swimming distances I didn't think I would ever swim, I ran miles that I never thought I could run, I lifted weights, and biked, more than I thought I ever could. I never stopped working out. I pushed myself on numerous occasions and am seeing the benefits of my hard work. I may not be losing the weight, but I am able to run longer and harder. I am able to swim and do flip turns, I am able to breathe through anxiety that I had in the pool recently, which would have made me get out right away in the past. I am a new athlete and am changing every day.

On March 21st, I ran in the Shamrock Shuffle. It was 4.97 miles. I had just come off a not so great eating week and really didn't know what to expect. I was not sure I could make their time cut off, but I just went in and did my best. I smashed all times I had in the past. I had never been able to break a 15 minute mile. My first mile I ran in 14:32. I needed to finish the race in 1:15 minutes, I did it in 1:13. When I saw the mile 4 marker sign. I teared up as I had never done more than a 5k up to that point. I knew at this point I was different on so many levels. Why was I sabotaging myself? I had no idea. If I could do this race, I could do anything. Crossing that finish line was monumental in my journey.



On March 27, this past Saturday, I met with my coach for a run workout. I was really nervous about this. I was driving to meet him at the park and was driving up and down hills and said to myself, "Oh crap, I know what's coming." HAHA I was right, but those first hills weren't even the beginning. He took me to this hill that I have driven by hundreds of times and each time I drive by it I think, "Thank God I don't have to run up that hill." Guess what? I can't say that anymore. He had me run up it, it was more of a very slow jog/walk/crawl/gasping for my last breath, kind of run, but I did it and I did it 4 times and this was after warming up, and running a mile. This hill is HUGE.

We parked at the top, walked down the hill, while I got a pep talk, and then I had to run up it. Man, it was killer. It really becomes mind over matter, and I made up my mind that this hill was not going to beat me, I was going to beat it, and I did, 4 times. We got back into the car, drove back to the park, then coach had me do sprint work, OMGosh, I thought I was going to puke, die, and then puke again, but I didn't. I did it. Nothing fell off of me, I didn't puke, I didn't die. I became a new athlete that day. That day I hit the RESET button on my working out mentality. I now know that I can push myself, and push myself hard.

After that workout I went to Weight Watchers. This is the meeting that I spoke of before. I had gained three pounds. You know what though I hit the RESET button. I RESET my thinking after getting that great text from my coach. I RESET my thinking on my food after seeing a 3 pound gain. I RESET my life that day. Saturday, March 27th, was the first day of the rest of my life and I am happy to say I am off to a great start. Thank you Melissa B, for talking about the RESET button. I am so glad you did and so glad that I have RESET my thinking, eating, and my life and if I have a bad week, I can just hit the RESET button again and start over without looking back.

Weight Watchers Teams with McDonalds

The article below is very upsetting to me. As a current, successful, member of Weight Watchers I am appalled that they would team up with McDonalds. I have already called headquarters and lodged my complaint. I will be very upset if this happens in the USA. Please read the article and then complain to the headquarters. Even if you are not part of Weight Watchers I ask that you please call or write and complain. This is totally ridiculous.

I am also upset because Weight Watchers is now going to be ridiculed. As you can tell by this article the author takes jabs at Weight Watchers, saying people can "Watch their Weight balloon to 300 pounds." This is going to so send the wrong message about what Weight Watchers is about. I have lost 83 pounds on it and they promote healthy eating and lifestyles, not McDonalds and I will not stand for the program to lose its good reputation unless that is too late. There is no other reason for them to do this, then to make money and I think it is wrong. Please help me get the word out and not let his madness make it to the US. Thanks for your help.

Here is the headquarters information so you can call, fax, or write:

Weight Watchers International, Inc.
11 Madison Ave.,
17th Fl.
New York, NY 10010 Map
Phone: 212-589-2700
Fax: 212-589-2601



HERE IS THE ARTICLE:

Weight Watchers says eat at McDonald's to lose weight (opinion)

Sunday, March 14, 2010
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...)



(NaturalNews) Weight Watchers has now officially endorsed Chicken McNuggets as a "healthy meal" in New Zealand, where McDonald's restaurants will begin carrying the Weight Watchers logo on several menu items. This bizarre and inexplicable decision has now made Weight Watchers the laughing stock of the health world where nutrition and weight loss experts normally don't use "McDonald's fast food" and "weight loss" in the same sentence.

As The Guardian reports, "As part of the deal, which the company says is the first of its kind in the world, McDonald's will use the Weight Watchers logo on its menu boards and Weight Watchers will promote McDonald's to dieters."

Nutritionists, not surprisingly, were shocked at the announcement. The idea of eating at McDonald's to lose weight seems a bit ridiculous, and anyone who believes that eating Chicken McNuggets will cause you to lose weight is arguably one nugget short of a Happy Meal. Sometimes you just have to point out the stupidity of these things, even at the risk of offending someone who has convinced themselves that eating more Chicken McNuggets is their ticket to a slim, fit and sexy body.


Watch your weight balloon!

Weight Watchers, by the way, never actually claims that eating the foods they endorse will cause you to lose weight. If you examine it carefully, even their name isn't really about weight loss. It's about weight watching... as in, watch your weight grow larger by the day...

A "weight watch" is sort of like a "tornado watch" or a "tsunami watch." You keep your eyes peeled and wait for something disastrous to happen -- such as ballooning to 300 pounds while engaging in unhealthy eating McHabits based on snarfing down meat parts from factory-farmed cows raised in bovine concentration camps that might more accurately be called "Cowschwitz."

If Weight Watchers is going to endorse McNuggets, then why not just endorse the entire McDonald's menu and throw the logo behind Big Macs and ice cream shakes, too? It's not like Weight Watchers is trying to "protect its reputation" by not crossing a line, you know. Once you've endorsed McDonald's as "healthy" food, that line is no longer anywhere in sight.

Of course, McDonald's products merely join a long list of questionable foods marketed under the "Weight Watchers" brand name -- a brand that in my opinion has discovered great commercial success in selling the false hope of weight loss to clueless consumers who are unwilling to read ingredients lists on food labels.

Not coincidentally, Weight Watchers has now become the "McDonald's" of the weight loss industry -- and industry filled with so many scams and shams that the idea of eating Chicken McNuggets to lose weight doesn't even seem that strange to many people.

We live in a world where corporate promotional lies are disgusting at best, and criminal at worst. We're told that psychiatric drugs will make you happy, that chemotherapy will make you healthy and that eating at McDonald's will make you lose weight. We're told that sugary junk drinks will give you "energy", that toxic vaccines are necessary for your immune system to work correctly and that buying silly pink-ribbon products will somehow cure cancer.

At the same time, we're told that vitamins are dangerous, that sunlight causes cancer and that there's no such thing as a cure for type-2 diabetes. Everything that's good for you is discredited as bad while everything that's toxic is hyped up as "healthy."

I suppose in light of the corporate-sponsored sick-care insanity that passes for medical advice these days, the idea that eating at McDonald's will make you lose weight doesn't seem as insane as it really should.

But that doesn't make it any more true.

In a world gone mad with dietary misinformation touting fictional foods, insanity can now be marketed to the intoxicated mainstream as if it somehow made sense.

... and people swallow it.

Sources for this story include:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/...

The truth behind the Costco Food Court

Costco is a place that I frequent on a regular basis to stock up on supplies for the kids' school lunches, staples for my Weight Watchers journey, and where I stock up on Fruit.

When the kids and I go to Costco we stop, from time to time, at the Costco Food Court on the way out. Tricia will get the Chicken Bake, Parker a hot dog. Sometimes we get fruit smoothies, and now Tricia likes the Cofee/Mocha freeze.

I was curious to see what the nutritional value was, so when I stopped by the Customer Service Desk and asked if they had the nutritional value and they told me to ask at the food court.

I did my shopping and then headed to the Food Court to get a Fruit Smoothie. I asked the man behind the counter for the nutritional value and he was very hesitant to hand it over. Then he asked me if there was an item that he could read to me and I told him that I would read it myself and write it down He then said, "You know there is NOTHING good here for you, don't you?"

I then preceded to read the nutritional value for the iteams we get on a regular basis.

Here are the Weight Watchers Points for our favorite items. I get 30 points a day, so you have some perspective on the point vales.

Chicken Bake: 17 points
Cheese Pizza Slice: 16 points
Pepperoni Pizza Slice: 14 points
Hot Dog with the works: 13 points
Frozen Yogurt: 8 points
Fruit Smoothie: 6 points
Coffee/Mocha Freeze: 5 points

These next two items you would think are healthy just by reading the titles of the food items. People think that they are eating healthy because they are eating a salad or a wrap, but the truth is in the nutritional value. Pretty eye opening, isn't it.

Ceasar Salad: 16 points
Turkey Wrap: 19 points

Here is a link to all the items and their nutritional values. I just put up the ones that my family gets the most. I hope you all find this helpful for your health and fitness journeys. Here is the link: Costco Food Court Nutritional Values