Here I am!

Wow, did I fall off the face of the Earth? No. But I did fall off the wagon. Big time. However, my Blog is called Thin by Thirty (ahem, I am 27) - and I know there will be falls and stumbles and rises and triumphs, so it's okay by me as long as I hold myself accountable for what's happened. It's been a long 4 months full of just general busy-ness. Nothing bad, nothing great. Just life.

As of January 2nd, I started back on the wagon weighing in at....253.1 pounds. Ugh. I fell off in August at 240. No matter, take a look at my quote under my blog title. Yes, everything will be okay.

I am sparking on Spark People. Daily goals are:

- Stay between 1200-1500 calories per day
- Drink at least 6 cups of H20 daily (to begin with)
- Consume at least 5 fruit/veggie servings daily (though I am usually 8-9+)
- Remember to take my multi vitamin and supplements DAILY

I am WORKING on lowering my sodium, slowly, because I have high blood pressure. This is so difficult! I thought it would be simple. Not with kids in the house who are picky eaters or living with my sister who lives off of processed junk and stocks the house constantly...No one is putting a gun to my head and making me eat it, but having it around all the time is hard for me. I have caved several times on 100 calorie snacks that she insists on buying. And I love my Lean Cuisines and soup. (I am not a cooker of any kind, but this is changing!)

I just wanted to quickly check in here and make it known I am BACK. Not like anyone reads this, but it's for myself nonetheless. Though if someone should stumble upon this, a comment would be nice :)

Plan Change!

I have decided that I no longer wish to follow the Weight Watchers plan. Although it is great for some, it is not the program for me and I don't want to continue in a plan that makes me unhappy. I am going to use Spark People instead and track calories and other nutrients that way. I really enjoy that site a lot more. I have had great success with it in the past. Weight Watchers is okay, and I do agree it is very helpful in learning good food behaviors to last a lifetime, but it just doesn't vibe with me. I feel like I eat way too much on that plan and get lazy in imputing all of the information to come to a points value. Sometimes I feel like I'm cheating when I'm not since I can eat so much on that plan. It doesn't give me a "good feeling". I don't like that fruit is "free". I can't make the plan work for me at all. I did lose weight - that's not what I am trying to say. Like I said, it doesn't jive well with me. So let's just leave it at that.

So, now I am on SP (Spark People). This plan is so user-friendly, I can better track what goes into my mouth, and the people there are so friendly. (On WW, the message board is very cliquey...One other reason I did not like the plan. I NEED moral support from others to get through this journey. This is a must!)

I'll be back here in a few days to track my progress! Off to get the kiddos into bed....

Let's kick it into high gear!

This past week was particularly difficult, but I still made it through with a loss. A 1.1 pound loss. Not too shabby for the 4th week! I am going to kick it into high gear this week and stop being lazy with tracking food. I admit I sometimes gloss over or guesstimate Points on the WW tracker too often. And I snack too often as well. I have a problem with taking bites of my kid's snacks and meals. I hate those cravings. It is so hard to stop doing that. It's hard to face and handle these foods everyday. I swear, food is like my drug. At least when an alcoholic or drug abuser quits, they don't have to still face it numerous times a day. I am faced with food many times throughout the day. It is very difficult to turn it away. Quite often, I take bites here and there of food that was unplanned for the day. I am pretty good at tracking it, but it messes up the day still. I find myself eating every hour, even if it is one bite. I just want concrete, planned healthy snacks.

Having kids makes dieting difficult. (Oy, I mean "lifestyle change"!)

But all in all, I've lost nearly 14 pounds this first month. Go me!

Someone (or something!) kill my appetite, please!

I had such a difficult time today with my ferocious appetite. It has really gotten to me. I somehow managed to stay in my points range, but I tell you it wasn't easy. This whole week has been like this. I weighed in on Monday with an astounding 4 pound loss at the completion of week 3, but I have a feeling the scale will give me a sad story come next Monday. Even though I am within my range, I feel like I am eating garbage. I downed Frosted Flakes and Froot Loops in a hurry this afternoon. (My sister brought it into the house, damn...) I finished the day with a light dinner of Progresso Chicken Noodle soup to balance it all out. I am still disappointed in eating that sugary cereal. Oh well, what's done is done and I still came out okay in the end. I just hope this appetite of mine is gone by tomorrow.

New Food Review of the Week: Jicama

I've been on the look out for this vegetable for months. This is because I thought it was a fruit. Someone on the Weight Watchers message board straightened me out! I was looking forward to trying this...ahem, vegetable...for quite some time so I just had to run out this evening and track it down with my new-found information. I found it at Whole Foods (of course! I always seem to find what I am looking for there...). Anyway....I cut this sucker up the first moment I was home....

Okay, everyone told me Jicama reminds them of a cross between a potato and an apple....Um, no...Where are people getting the "sweet" from? Mine tasted like I bit into a raw potato. Yes, it's texture was crunchy...But the taste wasn't pleasant at all. I still used it in my dinner salad anyway because I didn't want $5 to go to waste. The dressing covered up the taste and I at least got to enjoy the texture. I am going to try to add cayenne pepper to it tomorrow and see how it goes (snack perhaps?). (This was suggested - I swear. They do this in Mexico where the vegetable originates from!)

I give Jicama 2/5 stars (in it's natural state).

I have a feeling I am in the minority as everyone (on the WW board, anyway) seems to love it!

How it all began....

So here I am, seemingly jumping into another attempt at losing weight. Weight Watchers. This plan is somewhat uplifting and refreshing. A good plan. A plan that I am sure can be successful. As of tonight, I am closing on my third week and entering into the fourth week of this lifestyle change. I've lost about 9 pounds - and as of tomorrow morning - I'll likely add to that. I hope.

Quick background (I will not dwell too much on this, let's just get down to the nitty-gritty, shall we?): I've always been overweight for as long as I can remember. I was a chubby toddler, overweight child, and morbidly obese adult. I weigh more than I appear. My highest weight was 269 pounds. I am currently 245 pounds. Most people would guess not a pound over 200. But, who cares? I am obese. Morbidly, disgustingly obese.

The only time I "stuck" to a plan was in college. (Oh, by the way, I am 27.) Freshman year of college....I went from 220 pounds to 170 pounds and was a fitness freak. I was obsessed with fitness. And dieting. Going along my own plan (i.e. calorie counting) I did okay. What ended my fanaticism was a bout of the stomach virus. After I recovered from it, I went on eating by the truckloads and slowly gained and conveniently forgot my wits and let loose. Fast forward....Got married 3 years later, gained weight; got pregnant with twins, gained weight (though surprisingly not much at all); worked through serious matters with my children, gained weight. What has been affecting me most throughout the past 4 years is my twins. Though I will not elaborate too much on their special needs here (that's another blog), I will say that it has significantly impacted my weight. My now 4 year old twins were born prematurely, three months early, and have health issues. My son is autistic and my daughter has a feeding tube. The stress of raising them has impacted my weight immensely as I am what they call an emotional eater. Truth be told, a lot of their issues are "quieting down" for the most part so it is time to shift attention to this weighty matter of mine:

I have high blood pressure.
I am severely overweight.
I have high cholesterol.
I have heart palpitations.
My body aches from this weight I have to carry around.
I am psychologically impacted from my body image.

The list goes on. What really matter is the old cliche: I need to do this for my children. But it is not cliche to me. This is serious business. My life is on the line. My children depend on me. I HAVE TO DO THIS. It is now, or never. And I choose now.