Vacay Game Plan...

I'm going on vacation! Yay!!!

I'm going to New York City! Yay!!!

I'm going to see my brother! Yay!!!

My boyfriend is going with me! Yay!!!

There will be lots of delicious food! Yay!!!

My routine will be disrupted! ...


I am such a creature of habit. Especially when it comes to diet and exercise, especially when what I'm doing is working for me. So as amazing as this vacation is going to be, I'm a little worried about my routine being disrupted.

There will be lots of delicious food, for real. I am planning on going to at least one vegan bakery and at least one vegan restaraunt, both luxuries not offered in Memphis. I am scared that I will be so joyful that there are vegan options almost everywhere that I will feel the need to overeat on vegan goodies. Also, my Nordic Track is here, not in NYC.

So, I need a game plan. A plan that will help me to stay on track while on vacation. Maybe with a bit of wiggle room with the GHGs. Okay, here's what I can think of:

1) Get up early every morning and go for a walk/run for an hour. That, plus all the daily walking that will get done while site-seeing should ensure that I get more than enough exercise in.

2) Track everything, even the foods that I will have to guesstimate that points. Overestimate points on things like baked goods.

3) On days that I eat out, forget about the following GHGs: healthy oil, dairy, limit sugar and alcohol, whole grains. Just focus on total points and getting plenty of fruits and vegetables in, as well as lean protein.

4) Pack a lot of non-perishables in my suitcase (canned beans, packets of crystal light, granola bars) and go shopping for some produce upon arrival. Plan to cook at least once a day.

5) Have fun, and don't worry about it SO MUCH. I'm on vacation. But that doesn't mean that I'm on vacation from Weight Watchers. For once in my dieting life, I feel that I don't need to stray from my diet just because I'm on vacation. This must mean that I've finally made a...

LIFESTYLE CHANGE!!! Yay. :-)

Okay, that's it. That's my game plan. Wish me luck, I will be back to blog about how I did on October 19.

the most motivating picture I have...

...is one of myself before I gained the weight (this time). I lost a bunch of weight before, and got down to the weight shown in this picture, 135 pounds.

Oh, and I was three years younger, and blonde. (I used to get highlights, I'm naturally a dirty blonde/light brunette.)

Anyway, I love this picture because of how thin, healthy, and beautiful I look in it. I will be that thin again, in about 34.2 more pounds. :-)

But despite how much skinnier (and probably prettier) I am in this picture, I have to say that now I am much happier than I was when this was taken.

And that is much more important! I was miserable, despite my phony smile. My life was bad. My fiance (now ex-fiance) would make very mean remarks that made me feel fat. I thought that

I was much heavier than I actually was. I never felt "good enough" or "thin enough" for him (or for me).

So when I left him, I immediately gained a bunch of weight, quickly. Then I lost a bit, then I regained even more.

Now, here I am, less than 35 pounds away from weighing what I weighed in this picture. I'm ready to be thin and beautiful and KNOW that I'm thin and beautiful. I'm sick of feeling "less than". I'm finally feeling beautiful again, and I'm feeling healthy. And I know that I'm getting closer and closer to my ultimate goal weight.

And this time, when I smile into that camera, it will be a genuine "I love myself and I love my life" smile. :-)

No Guilt about my birthday eating...

...because I did pretty well. :-)

My family and I ate at Whole Foods last night (Dad, Mom, cousin, and boyfriend) and everyone agreed to eat vegan in honor of my birthday. We ate from the buffet and the salad bar, and it was a very nice experience.

Things that I especially enjoyed: chicken-fried tofu, onion-pepper squash, soy nugget stir-fry, potatoes and leeks.

Oh, and the dessert. The WF in Memphis doesn't carry vegan birthday cakes, so I got a dozen vegan chocolate chip cookies and brought in my own frosting. For dessert, I made everyone there cookie-cakes, with a thick layer of frosting between two cookies. Yum!

All in all, I guesstimate that what I consumed added up to 35 points. I am not sure if that is accurate or not. I guessed 15 for the food, 15 for the cookies, and 5 for the frosting. I used the last of my WPA plus about 15 AP. Again, this is just guessing.

I'm hoping that I overestimated, and actually ate less than what I guessed. But, if not, I had the APs for it, and should still (in theory) be able to get a loss this week.

Lots of people on the ww.com message boards say that if they eat their APs, they don't lose. But I think that for me, I will. :-)

No guilt. The food was amazing, I still got in an hour on the Nordic Track, and enjoyed every bite of dinner and dessert.

Today will be a 23 points day with lots of water and exercise.

Tomorrow is the last weigh-in before my trip to NYC.

Wish me luck!

26.

I am now 26 years old.

That is all.

P.S. I own "Now That's What I Call Music" 1, which featured such artists as "Spice Girls" "Backstreet Boys" and "Hanson".

Bullies!!!

Story time!

So I'm out on my bike ride last night, not a care in the world. It's the first week as a WW-er who has lost over 50 pounds, it's the last week that I'll be 25 years old, my body feels great, powerful, and healthy. It's a bit cold out, the first taste of the fall weather here in Tennessee. I'm feeling great about life, and about myself!

I turn a corner and there is a group of boys, probably ages 8-12 (I'm bad at guessing kid's ages. They could have been 6 or 15, too, but 8-12 is my best guess.). I don't think anything of them, just acknowledge their presence in my mind as carefree kids shooting the breeze on a Tuesday evening after school.

As I approach the group (as it's on my route), one of them shouts at me, "Hey, lady you need a better bike." That doesn't bother me, I just ignore them and keep on biking. My bike is a pretty nice one by my standards. I bought it from a yard sale last summer for $15, it's green, and everything works. But kids will be kids, right?

Then as I bike away, I hear the same one shout, "You need a better booty, too!"

I'm not going to write here what I shouted back to him in response. I'm not proud of it. That kind of rash behavior towards rude children is one of the many reasons that I'm not ready to have them myself yet.

If you know me, you know now that I am pretty darn sensative about my butt. It's big. Probably out of the 50 pounds that I've lost, only 7 of them came off of my butt, so with my now much smaller waist, it looks even bigger now. (I know, cry me a river, right, complaining about my smaller waist! I'm not, I really love my waist!!) Anyway, the point is, my big butt is a sore subject for me.

Kids used to tease me about it all the time when I was a teenager. So those memories came flooding back to me when that evil neighborhood kid was rude enough to make that comment.

I just thought that my days of being bullied by children were over, since I myself haven't been a child for 8 years now. But I guess that I was wrong.

So a warning to my readers: Kids can be really mean. Kids can be bullies. Even to adults.

50 Pounds and 50 Followers!!!

Hurray! I got my 50th follower today!!! Thank you, everyone, for following my blog. Especially those who read it and comment. I really feel like I have so much support, just for reaching out into the blogging community. I love this blog, and I appreciate all of you. So, here's a blog award for all of my readers! Enjoy. :-) Wow, this picture turned out creepy. I promise that it was supposed to be cute.

50 POUNDS GONE FOREVER!!!

I don't quite know how to put into words how amazing I feel to write that I have now officially lost 50 entire pounds of fat.

Just know that I am very happy with the results of both Weight Watchers and The Kind Diet. Having the rules of Weight Watchers to follow has helped me to learn more about portion control and hunger signals, as well as the importance of exercise. Being vegan has helped me stay out of my boyfriend's Cooler Ranch Doritos, Little Debbies, and Totinos party pizzas. :-)

I have updated my next goal weight: 155. I can't believe how close that feels now! I now weigh 169.2, which means that I am only 14.2 pounds overweight.

Meaning that when I reach my next goal of 155, I will no longer be considered overweight on any BMI chart. And yes, I still plan to go on to lose 20 more pounds after that, to get closer to the middle of the range and to feel truly fantastic about my body!

But I'm already feeling pretty darn good about my body. It has definately shrunk and tightened up this year.

This week, on October 7, I turn 26 years old. It is my goal to not let my birthday mean "permission to binge-eat" like it has in the past. I am planning to earn a lot of Activity Points this week, and to probably eat most of them on my birthday. This is because my family is buying me a vegan birthday cake from Whole Foods, and I will probably eat a fairly large slice or two. ;-) But it's my birthday, and it's planned, so.... there.

I also have more exciting news: On October 13-18, Stacey (boyfriend) and I are visiting my brother Joel in New York City! Not only will this be the most awesome trip ever because I will get to see Joel (see link to joelbnew.com in my list of links to the right), many pictures will be taken and I will post a few here.

Oh, and it's almost time to take my next set of progress pictures. I took the last ones at 178.6, and I'm now at 169.2. I'm looking forward to see what difference the last 10 pounds made, if any. I'm sure that my waist is smaller!

Okay, I hope that all of my readers/followers have great weeks.

Thanks for following me!

edit: I have started a mini-challenge to earn 25 AP by Thursday (my birthday) to eat a few slices of vegan birthday cake! :-) Hurray for the flexibility of this plan!

edit #2: I need one more follower! I think it would be super awesome to get my 50th follower right after I lost my 50th pound!! :-)