Day 31 Weigh In!!! Oh Snap!

The Cowboys make me sad.

(Yes, that is my greeting of the day.)

It has been a great day here in the 850. Woke up this morning, got on the scale, and I lost 4.4 pounds this week!!! So I blew my 1 pound goal out of the water and I have lost a total of 23.4 pounds and I am 92.8 pounds away from my goal. Whenever you have had a successful weigh in, have you ever gotten on the scale like 3 more times to make sure it was right? Because I totally did that and I hope I’m not the only one. Anyways… More about weight to come.

Breakfast: This morning, we opened the windows and let cold Fall air breeze through the house as I made some bacon (2 points) and eggs (4 points.) I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, there is nothing better than getting up early and enjoying the peace and quiet before the day commences. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I have the same coffee cup in every picture. It’s not because we have only 1 cup it’s just because it’s awesome. That’s about it.

 

 

 

 

Lunch: Thanks to a gift card to Olive Garden from my folks, after church we went to the good ol’ OG for a Sunday afternoon lunch. Like last time, we split the Shrimp Primavera which was only 5 points! After years of avoiding it, I finally had the minestrone and it was fantastic (when I was in the 3rd grade, I got sick from minestrone so I have abstained from it since then.) It’s a great appetizer over the salad which is only worth it points wise if you eat it dry. A bowl was 1 point so I had 2 glorious bowls for 2 points. I was good again and only had one breadstick which was 3 points (depressing right?) What I did was I broke it in to thirds and used it for each part of the meal. Then the Andes mint was 1 point. Super duper worth it. (How can you not like Andes mints? If you don’t like them, don’t tell me so we can stay friends.)

Sad Days: I just saw this in Wal-Mart and it made me sad because I should probably never eat Oreo’s again because I use to eat about 7 at a time. They are my glutinous Achilles Tendon. I know some people feel like they are missing out when they do the life style change thing, but it’s so worth it. When you read the bottom section, you’ll see how worth it it can be. (But read the whole post!)

 

 

 

 

Exercise: I got a call from my bud Matt and we went and played racquetball this afternoon. Earlier this week I got owned but today I held my own and after I just felt great. According to Calorie Count, I burned 1060 calories for 1 hour of casual racquetball. If you want to get a good cardio and sweat a disgustingly satisfying amount, play some racquetball. It’s addicting like a healthy crack. (Plus, according to the WW exercise points formula, I was suppose to have 16 extra points today. Did I further prove my point?)

Dinner: So there are a lot of things that you buy at the grocery store that look good in theory, but then are just bad? Well this was one of those. We bought a Zatarain’s Jambalaya mix and we added some shrimp. It was a sodium nightmare, you could taste the salt and it was just a weird tasting dish. I usually love jambalaya so I was severely disappointed. To make it worse: it was 13 points. Why does it seem like that the stuff that you don’t enjoy eating are also high points? So lame.

 

 

 

 

Dessert: After my Men’s small group study, I came home to the house smelling of delicious pumpkin pie. Megan had been wanting to try the Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie recipe from the WW cookbook (page 409) and holy smokes was it good! It was the first time she had made a pie, much less a crust, and she dominated. We have been looking for WW dishes and such to serve at Thanksgiving and for only 4 points for a slice, I think we have found our dessert! It was delicious.

So Down To Brass Tax: if you haven’t noticed, I have never actually mentioned my weight since I’ve started blogging. To be honest, it was something I wanted to keep hidden because if this didn’t work (as in if I gave up) the insult to the injury would be that people would not only know that I had failed, but they would know something that personal. So now, I feel really comfortable and encouraged about this monumental change in my life thanks to my friends, family, and the blogging community that is fighting the same fight as I. So here we go…

A few weeks before I started WW on September 14th 2010, I looked like this. I weighed an  astonishing 357 pounds. I’ve never really felt limited in activity, but I was slowly going in that direction. I felt gross, uncomfortable, and worst of all: fat. This was the first time in my life I was closer to 400 pounds than 300. I was scared. A long time ago I read that John Candy (my comedic idol) was 300 pounds most of his life and he died 44 so I knew that I’ve needed to change but somehow that wouldn’t do it. In 8th grade, I was 275 pounds and that was after I had lost some weight in football. I needed to change then and I knew it, but for some reason I didn’t. So what makes this time different? Accountability. I have had people I haven’t talked to in years text me, fb chat me, and call to tell me they enjoy the blog. If that’s not inspiration to keep it up I don’t know what is. I’m not doing this for attention or credit. I’m doing it for God, my family, and so you can enjoy my awesomeness for a little while longer on this earth.

(Photo cred to my bud Gerard!)

So here is where we are today. This is me this is me today at 333.8 pounds. I am back to being closer to 300 than 4oo which is a win in itself to me. As you can see, I have man boobs. Big ones. I’m like the Pamela Anderson of man boobage. But they have shrunk considerably (To quote Homer Simpson “I’m wasting away to a B-cup!”)  Also a win. Something also awesome, when I get to 321, I will have lost 10% of my body weight which is so cool! I’m hoping to break 300 by my birthday (January 13th. Don’t forget!) which I think might be doable so it’s a goal I’m setting for myself. Even if I get close I’ll be stoked so I come out awesome in this either way.

 

 

 

 

So today’s post (as promised) has been a doozie, but it’s a big deal for me to expose my weight like this, but I honestly wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t for your amazing support. Thank you again, and please keep it coming. It does not go unnoticed. See ya tomorrow.

 

 

Day 29 It’s Friday!!!!!

Happy National Hug an Asian Day! (Have you hugged an Asian today?)

It is cold and beautiful once again in Tallahassee! As soon as we woke up this morning we opened the windows and let the fresh air blow through. It finally feels like Fall again.

So this morning as I was cooking breakfast I was thinking about Cracker Barrel and how awesome it is (don’t ask me why. I think we all day dream about Cracker Barrel every once in a while.) I was thinking about how awesome it would be to go there for breakfast tomorrow morning before the FSU/BC game so I decided to do some nutritional investigation. I was disappointed, not because of what I found, rather what I didn’t find. This is what the Cracker Barrel’s Question section says in response to nutritional information:

“Is nutritional information available for your menu items? Here at Cracker Barrel, we pride ourselves on using recipes and ingredients that are authentic, genuine, and of the highest quality available.  We strive to prepare and present these food items to you in a way that upholds those authentic traditions of days gone by. Cracker Barrel certainly understands the health-conscious concerns that some of our guests have. While we are unable to give you any exact calorie or fat content information, the following choices may help you in your selection:”

Through all the clever PR wording of this paragraph, all I read is: “If you knew how many calories you were eating when you were here, you would be hacked.” Why are they not able to disseminate this information? As consumers, I think we have a right to know what we are paying to put in our bodies. I understand that smaller Mom and Pop, single location establishments don’t have that information available on hand; but Cracker Barrel has 588 locations in 41 states! They really don’t have an excuse. To be fair, they do have alternatives, but I fell like that’s not enough because the healthier options still aren’t always the best. I also know that sites like The Daily Plate and Diet and Health have some of their nutritional information, but I still don’t think that’s enough. This is something that I hope will change nation wide soon because I think when people see the calorie and fat content on the menu, it might make them think twice and thus slowly open people’s eyes to the overall problem with obesity in America.

Anywho…

Breakfast: I made eggs (4 points) and bacon (2 points) for this crisp fall morning. Like I’ve said before, we use to never eat breakfast but it’s really nice because a lot of the time Megan and I don’t see each other at all during the day so it’s just nice to sit and talk about the upcoming day (and to compare bizarre dreams.) So even if you aren’t dieting or whatever, I would still sit down for breakfast (even if it is at 6:00 am) and mentally prepare yourself for the day and enjoy the peace and quiet. Just don’t fall asleep in your bowl of Cheerios.

 

 

 

Lunch: I went to Publix to pick up a few things around lunch time and I was starving. Our pantry was running thin so I went to the freezer aisle to find a meal. I was about to buy a box of Boca Burgers (not because I’m vegetarian, I just like Boca Burgers) and then I saw my dream diet food: Pot Stickers. I love pot stickers and dumplings so much and I haven’t had them in 6 months (I like them that much I actually remember) and since I have started WW I figured I would never taste them again :'( then I found this. I dropped everything, sped home, threw it in the microwave, and then savored these amazing little bits of Heaven wrapped in wonton. I was really impressed with this dish and for only 5 points I’m definitely getting this again.

 

 

Snack Fail: I wanted to eat something to hold me over until our epic steak dinner (more to come on that) so I popped some waffles in the toaster (3 points.) Then I forgot how high in points peanut butter was so I put a serving on there and it was 5 points. Ouch. On the upside, the peanut butter is a lot better than the day I stirred it so it was worth it.

Steak Dinner Awesomeness: In keeping with trying new meals week, we concluded our testing meal week with the London Broil out of the WW cookbook (yes: what you’re seeing is considered a diet food.) The marinade was 1/2 cup of wine, rosemary, salt, pepper, and garlic. It marinaded overnight in the fridge and then we broiled them 4 minutes on each side. We then cut up some asparagus and sauteed it with butter. It. Was. Epic. We were really impressed with how the steak turned out, and really impressed with the price: folks, this meal was $3.75 a person. So all of you people who think it is worth it just to eat out all the time, this is what $3.75 can get you. What can you get for $3.75 at McDonald’s? The answer: not much. Just saying. So the 8 oz sirloin was 6 points and the asparagus was 1.5 points. This meal would great with boiled potatoes too or even a mashed potato. Definitely check out this recipe.

So today I’ve totaled out at 26.5 points so not too shabby of a day. I’ll find something to snack on during the Rangers game. Last game I had a bigger bag of sunflower seeds which was only 4 points so I might do that again.

Announcement! So my folks and sis are coming to Tallahassee for Thanksgiving (I’m super stoked!) and my mom was talking about them joining the Anytime Fitness that is about to open in their neck of the woods. We were talking about the challenges that the Holidays are going to bring. Then I jokingly mentioned that there is a Turkey Trot 5k Thanksgiving morning and she was pretty psyched about it. So our family is going to do the 5k! I’m super stoked about it but we have a lot of running to do between now and then. Megan and I ran one in April and my time was 39:32 so I want to try to break that time. So we have 5 weeks (yes… Thanksgiving is 5 weeks away) to get back in to it so we are pretty stoked. If you have read this whole blog, you are awesome and thank you. See ya tomorrow.

 

Day 25? Holy Smokes.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving eh!?!

Today was a super stressful day because I had this group presentation that I was really worried about. During class I kept thinking about ways to avoid presenting (I don’t have issues with public speaking at all, it was just one of those things where you feel really ill prepared but in reality you’re prepared) like vomiting in my backpack or wishing for the second coming. Since neither of those things happened today, we did the presentation and we rocked it so I’m feeling pretty good.

Let’s talk about food shall we?

Breakfast: I got up early with Megan and I made us breakfast (frying bacon while half asleep could have been rather hazardous but luckily it wasn’t.) I made some bacon (3 slices for 2 points? Deliciously Legit!!!!) and eggs (4 points.)

Mid morning snack: I had a little bag of trail mix which was 5 points.

Lunch: I was a little crunched for time so I warmed up a Smart One. You were only suppose to warm it up 5 1/5 minutes, but with our ghetto microwave it ended up taking 13 minutes. (If you want to get me something for Christmas, get me a microwave.) Anyways, after it was down it turned out very well. I added a points worth of Parmesan cheese which was a nice touch. For a Smart One it was pretty good and for 6 points total it was filling.

Dinner: This week we are trying some new recipes from the WW book and this one is a keeper! Megan made the Pasta Primavera with Provolone  from page 292 I think and holy cow it was so good! My wife is a cooking stud. This picture is of 2 servings which was a total of 10 points. I could go on about it but I need to wrap this sucker up.

After dinner: I’ve had a 1 point orange and a 1 point Fudgesicle so far.

Today so far I’ve totaled 29 points so not too bad for another whacky day. See ya tomorrow.

Day 24 Weigh in Day!!!

Hooray For Sunday.

I woke up this morning anxious for the weigh in. I didn’t know if I had done enough this week so I kind of expected the worst (I’m not saying this for dramatic effect, I was scared.) So I got on the scale and much to my surprise, I lost 2.8 pounds this week! Hooray! So now I am 97.2 lbs away from my 100 pound goal. Megan lost exactly 1 pound this week so she has lost a total of 10.6 pounds so far. Right now, I’m exactlty 1 pound away from 20 pounds so hopefully we can get rid of that this week!

Breakfast: I had 2 multigrain waffles (3 points) with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter (5 points) and 1 tsp of honey (1 point.) Usually on Sunday I have to eat something pretty hearty because I’m starving after church (to me, sitting in church when you are hungry is like the worst thing ever.)  This filled me up for a good while.

Lunch: So we had a luncheon at church for new members so the church prepared the lunch. They had fried chicken, I thought “oh crap, I’m screwed.” I thought about getting a drumstick, but instead I got some corn (1 point,) steamed squash (1 point,) a serving of baked beans (2 points) and a deviled egg (2 points.) I thought a drumstick would be really bad, but they are only 3 points so in hind sight I should have just bit the fried bullet.

I still feel like I’m walking on egg shells every time I’m eating something that I don’t know the points of, but I guess this is something that is up for debate: is it better to just eat it and use your flex points if it is super bad or is it better to be safe than sorry? Thoughts?

Here’s what I think, it’s really easy to give an inch, and before you know it that inch becomes a foot. I thought that if I could justify the drumstick, then I would have easily justified the broccoli casserole and then the mac n’ cheese. I think if we were truly honest with ourselves, we do that all the time and it is such a slippery slope. I feel like I have made such progress with my addiction to food that I can’t let myself get in to those situations because I have done that time and time again. Some people might think that I am depriving myself of those foods because with WW you really can eat what you want, but frankly I have had those delicious-but-unhealthy foods all my life. What I have really been depriving is my health and my body all this time. To some this might be extreme, but it’s what I need to do for myself to get this weight thing under control. On a side note, I just want to thank my friends at lunch for their support, the whole time they were impressed with what they called my discipline, it was what I needed then to just keep on keepin’ on (they know who they are.)

Wow.. blogging is super cathartic.

Snack/Continuation of Lunch: When we were grocery shopping, we bought some Hebrew National 94% Fat Free Hot Dogs and I’m so glad we did. When we were watching the Rangers slowing unravel my heart out by out, I cooked up 2 dogs (which are only 1 point a dog so 2 points.) and wrapped them up in bread (total of 4 points) and then added some ketchup and mustard, oh and a pickle to each since they are zero calories (holla!) I’m sure that looks gross to you but it was the comfort food I needed to get through a devastating loss.

Dinner: We made our stellar Tamale Casserole. It was 12 points of amazing happiness. That’s all that needs to be said. (Yes, this is a stock photo. I like this picture. Sue me.)

So after a roller coaster of an emotional day, I totaled out at 33 points which was right at my points for the day. Hooray! See ya tomorrow.

Day 22 (Emmitt Smith Day)

(It’s Emmitt Smith Day because it was his number…22)

TGIF!!!!!! (Remember when that was the thing to watch on ABC? When they had Family Matters, Step by Step, and other awesome shows? Now ABC has Modern Family…. and that’s about it)

So this morning I went and played racquetball again with my friend Adam and the traffic was a nightmare. I’ve never lived somewhere where I was speeding going the speed limit (for supplemental reading in regards to my opinions on driving, please read this) Anywho, I had a blast playing but I’ve been tired ever since.

Breakfast: I was in a rush this morning so I just popped two waffles in the toaster and ate them on the way. No peanut butter, just deliciousness. So 3 points right there.(No picture, if you want to know what a waffle looks like, google it.)

Lunch: I didn’t get to eat lunch until around 2:30 so I was soooo hungry!!!!! I started to dig around in the fridge and I wasn’t finding anything big, just a lot of little things so I put those little things in to an omelet baby! (There was a crazy lady at The Bean that would yell OMELETS BABY! I love weird people.)  I used three cage free eggs, which are so much better than regular eggs, which was 6 points, a serving of turkey breast (1 point) and half of a serving, 1/8 cup of Sargento Reduced fat shredded cheese (1 point.) I was going to use the whole serving which was 2 points but I realized it wasn’t worth the point and the cheese was enough. I also just put a splash of skim milk in there too. And like my friend Jade always says to do, I slathered that sucker with salsa. Not to brag, but it was the best omelet I have ever made. Then I had a 1 point orange because oranges rock.

Dinner: So we were suppose to have turkey burgers tonight, but I forgot to take out the turkey this afternoon to defrost (fail.) When Megan realized my screw up she said “Alright, where are we going for dinner?” Immediately, we hopped on to our respected laptops and started to search for places we could go eat. She then brought up Qdoba, one of my favorite burrito joints. I was really giddy about the idea, but I thought we were going to over do it points wise, but you can build a burrito and find the nutritional facts. So we split the shredded beef queso burrito and we each had a small order of chips. Chips and half of a burrito came out to 13 points. I was a ton of food for the points. I typed in what I use to get, just to see, and it was around 24 points! It was kind of depressing because we use to go to burrito places a lot so it explains where all these extra lb’s came from. Oh, and sorry about the ghetto picture, it’s off of Megan’s phone. My phone was dead.

So today I tried to make up for yesterday by drinking a lot more water and also by trying to keep the points down. I’m only at 25 points today so far so not too shabby. Hopefully the proof will be on the scale on Sunday. See ya tomorrow.

Day 17 Weigh in Day!!!!

Eläköön punnita päivä!

(That’s “Hooray for Weigh in Day!” in Finnish)

I can’t believe it’s been 17 days since this blog started. So far, it’s been awesome thanks to you dear reader (give yourself a pat on the back.) Well as you recall from yesterday, I was cautiously optimistic about the results from Señor Scale. This morning when I got on the scale, I was still pretty nervous, but then I knew it was going to be good when Megan was like “Oh Snap!” I lost 3.8 pounds this week! I was so happy! It’s awesome because it felt like I was cheating with how well we ate this week lol. I know that working out really helped too but even that felt like cheating because I was doing activities with friends. Megan lost 1.8 pounds and I’m so stoked for her because she’s back down to her weight from when we were working out a ton in March! Good times!

Breakfast: So how do you celebrate a successful weigh in? Bacon and eggs of course! (I don’t think I ever ate this much bacon when I wasn’t dieting.) I had 2 eggs over medium for 4 points and 3 slices of bacon for 2 points. I was awesome. I do miss not having toast, but I’d rather have the points for later.

Lunch: We had planned on just eating leftovers at home, but we decided to look around town for something healthy (which has been an issue wherever we have lived.) We decided to go to Olive Garden to just do soup, salad and bread sticks. That always seems like a good idea on the way there, but then you look at the menu and everything else sounds so much better than just salad (even though their salad is amazing!) Anywho, as we were looking at the menu, we saw that Olive Garden has their nutritional information available upon request so we asked for it and they brought out a pamphlet. Also, their menus have a symbol that indicates their lighter meals. After some investigating, we decided on splitting the Shrimp Primavera which is one of my favorite dishes anyway. Instead of salad (which isn’t bad points wise without the dressing, but the dressing is the best part!) I got the Zuppa Toscana which was 3 points. Instead of eating like 5 bread sticks, I just broke one (3 points a bread stick, yep they are that bad but that delicious) in half and ate it with the soup and then with the Shrimp Primavera. Anyways when they brought out our entree they had already split it in half for us! It was awesome because it’s hard to evenly split an entree yourself (and frankly you’re sad/angry the whole time you are splitting it) so it’s nice to have them accommodate to their customers who are trying to be health conscious. I think another thing about having them split it is that I didn’t miss that other half at all. We have become so conditioned to eat what is in front of us that if even half of it isn’t visible, we don’t miss it. So our servings of the Shrimp Primavera was only 5 points! Even though the service was okay, I was really impressed with Olive Garden and it was exciting to find another place that we could go to and not have to worry about getting killed with points. Oh yeah, their Andes mints are 1 point. SO WORTH IT!!!! (Next time I blog about Olive Garden, remind me to tell you about the time my Uncle Ken accidentally burned my arm with candle wax at an Olive Garden when I was 5. Actually, that’s all there is to that story so nevermind.)

Dinner: Well, you can never fight off leftovers no matter how hard you try, but it’s okay because chili is my favorite leftovers except for maybe pizza. I had 2 cups of chili for 5 points and 9 chips for 3 points. That is the best 8 point dinner in the universe.

So today I’ve eaten a total of 26 points so I’ll eat something a little later when I’m working on a paper (but I promise it will be healthy!)

Goal Time! So yesterday I mentioned that I have planned on a goal for my weight loss. I think setting goals are a good way to give yourself some direction especially with weight loss. Every time I’ve set pretty much unattainable (unless I was on Biggest Loser) goals for myself, and I know the one I have in mind might even be pretty lofty, but this journey needs a finish line. So here it is: I want to lose 100 pounds before I graduate from grad school in May 2012. I have figured it out and that’s 83 weeks from today. In order to do that, I have to lose 1.2 pounds per week from here on in to achieve this goal. I know this is not going to be a cake walk (or since I’m dieting: a low fat ice cream walk) but I know that this is going to be the best way to get rid of my fat once and for all. I also want to prove to people that you can successfully lose a significant amount of weight without having to go on Biggest Loser, I want to prove that you control your own destiny (and density.) I’m excited for the challenges that lay ahead, because I know that the reward will be great not only for me, but for my wife, my family, and for my future children. However, most of all I’m doing this for the glory of God as it says to in 1 Corinthians “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” So here’s what I need from you: please pray for me for patience and discipline during this journey. If I look down (or hungry,) just give me a thumbs up and if you need someone to exercise with, give me a call and we will figure something out. Thanks again for reading and the encouragements you have already sent my way.  See ya tomorrow.

Day 12 (Drummers Drumming)

Salutations!

It was a gorgeous morning here in Tally. I love living in a part of the country that actually has seasons. In Texas there was hot, really hot and then really cold.

Breakfast: a few blogs back (the first one I think) I talked about cooking up some turkey bacon and how it was such a good alternative to regular bacon. Later on someone wrote me that center cut bacon is just as good so we picked some up this week. She was awesomely right. It was actually lower points for 3 slices. Only 2 points! Although iwas less points, it was still weird to see all of the grease come off the bacon, so I was sure to pat off all the grease I could. I also I cooked up some eggs (cage free of course) and made them over medium. Back in my bigger days, I would just fry up the eggs in the bacon grease which tasted (ana) divine but today the thought of doing that made me sick so my body is still surprising me about what it’s craving. So sans the bacon grease the eggs were only 4 points.

I also tried to make a bacon face, because they’re awesome.

Snack: I went straight to workout after my class so I packed a Emerald Trail Mix pack because I knew I would need to eat something in that time. It’s always good to have a healthy snack in your backpack, satchel, la mochila, or even your trapper keeper. So that was 5 points.

Exercise: I went to Leach so excited to exercise it up! It felt like it had been forever! I hopped on the treadmill ready to jog/run, but I usually start off slow with a warm up walk. So I was on my iPod (answering fan mail lol) and I just kept walking and turning up the speed. Before I knew it I was up to 4.3 mph (at this point I would have been jogging) so it was feeling good and I just kept doing it, and I was feeling the burn! So I briskly walked and threw in a couple of jogs in there during certain songs.

I have a running mix on my iPod and I keep it on shuffle, but there are a few I will play at certain times for that extra boost. The first song is always Live Your Life by T.I featuring Rihanna since it’s 5 minutes and a good warm up song. Then about 15 minutes in I turn it to I’m Shipping to Boston by Dropkick Murphys (that awesome song from The Departed) and I’ll kick up the acceleration and run since it’s only 2 1/2 minutes. Finally when there’s about 9 minutes left the last two songs are D.A.N.C.E. (MSTRKRFT Remix) and Wolf Like Me by TV on the Radio. Wolf Like Me is good because towards the end there is a slow part and then the last 1:30 is super intense. If you were cool you would download these songs right now and start sweating to the awesomes.

So overall I wogged 4.11 miles in about an hour, burning 829 calories according to the treadmill (I had the soaked shirt to prove it.) I’m sure you’re wondering if that number seems to be a little high, well… it is. When you’re has big as me, it’s a lot quicker to burn off calories. I was a great day.

Lunch: So thanks to a long workout and bus snafu (long story) I didn’t make it home until around 3 so I was starving!!! I warmed up my favorite Amy’s meal: Tamale Verde. It was fantastic. The best 9 points I’ve ever eaten, and the 1 point orange was great as well. (At that point, I could have eaten a piece of tire and enjoyed it.)

Dinner: 2 hours later I had dinner. When you start WW, it’s hard to find a restaurant that not only has their nutritional value available, but are also a place where you can eat and still have points left. This is especially annoying since most local places (the good places) generally don’t have that information. Anywho, after about 30 minutes of investigating, I found the Pita Pit Website where you can build your pita and it will calculate the nutritional value. I found the Chicken Souvlakia and it was only 12 points. It was a really good alternative to the gyro I wanted which was 17 points because they use the same Greek seasoning on the meat. It was a good choice.

Megan being a cute little food model.

Today I racked up a total of 33 points which was my limit today. BTW we are using an older WW system so I’m actually suppose to have something like 44 points but I couldn’t eat that many points a day if I tried. Anywho, usually you get exercise points (here’s a way to calculate it oh and read her blog it is really good!) but I’m not hungry so why eat? See ya tomorrow.

Day 10 Weigh-in Funfest!

Good Sunday to ya!

It has been a cool and rainy day in Tallahassee. It’s a nice change from the sauna it has been. This morning, I hopped on the scale (actually I didn’t hop on because it’s generally dangerous for fat people to jump on anything) and I lost 1.6 pounds! At first I was a little disappointed, but then Megan put it in context for me. She pulled out a can of soup and said “you lost this off your body this week.” That’s pretty cool (my wife is a stud) and considering I didn’t work out at all I’m pretty stoked about it.

Lunch: (I skipped breakfast again unintentionally. Fail.) Today we had a luncheon after church and they had sandwich stuff available so we ate there. It was a pretty good spread and the fruit medley was fantastic (I have always been an endorser of fresh fruit, especially when it’s only 1 point.) They had some bags of chips and I saw that the regular lays had 10 grams of fat in them for the serving of the small bag. Bad news bears. So I snatched the last bag of Sun Chips which was only 3 points. I figured out my sandwich was 5 points (skipping the gross looking processed cheese was worth it.) and I just stuck with ice water.

Snack: So since I started this thing I’ve been going on and on about the Emerald Trail Mix Berry Blend pouches that I thought were only 3 points. Well folks I have been duped. I’m usually really good about reading nutritional facts but this packaging is really confusing. I guess in my mind (even though I’ve looked at the facts many times) something in individualized packets would just be one serving. Turns out there are 2 servings in a 1.81 ounce pack, making it 5 points instead of 3. This is really frustrating to me because it is obviously intended to give the consumer a false sense of how healthy the product is for you. Granted, it’s still only 5 points and they are super filling. Anywho, the moral of this story is to watch out for these traps because next time it could be on something really bad like a doughnut or a candy bar. (This is The Scandal referenced on Facebook BTW)

Dinner: we had some amazing Tacos with Salsa from the WW cookbook. They are super filling and only 4 points for one taco (that’s with light sour cream and salsa.) So I had 3 tacos for 12 points.

Dessert: This evening I learned a lot about how much your eating habits and tastes can change over a short period of healthy eating. Tonight we went to Hiro’s Yogurt on Tennessee which is one of my favorite dessert shops in Tallahassee. It’s one of those places where it’s self serve yogurt and self serve toppings and you pay per ounce. Last time I went there (the first day of my diet pre-blogging) I went a little off the deep end.

Exhibit A: This is what I had the first time I was there. (This picture is named “ice cream fail.jpg” on my computer)

Exhibit B: This was tonight. Instead of chocolate I got Taro flavor and instead of sundae toppings I got strawberries and blueberries. The yogurt was 102 calories for 1/2 a cup so it came out to 4.5 points. I was really proud of myself about this because my sweet tooth is what got me in to this obese mess so I know substituting fruit for refined sugar is going to make this sucker work.

So today I came out at 30.5 points. Which is funny because I was full all day long but yesterday after eating out twice totaling over 40 points I felt empty.

My Tip of the Day: If you want to keep track of your points or to at least try out WW, bookmark this points calculator on your iPhone or iPod Touch (or what ever inferior product you might have) and just try it out this week. All you need to calculate your points is the calories, fat, and the fiber content. So try it on this week.