Week 4: Menu Planning & Cooking Again

Current Weight:   240.4
+/- this week:   -2.4
+/- total:    -26.5
Short Term Goal 1:   237.8 (5%)

I haven't been staying for meetings the last couple of weeks for various reasons.  This week I had Danny with me and needed to get a check to the bank immediately.  Last week, I had a limited amount of time to do some things.  And the week before same deal.  Hopefully next week I'll be able to start staying for the actual meetings, but I did make sure to make it in for my weigh ins each week. 

I had weighed myself at home this week so I'd know what to expect - the 2nd week of Christmas break, and I'd used all my weekly points and only gotten 13 activity points, so my expectations were not high.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a loss of over 2 pounds at weigh in!  I'm going to get my goals for 2012 up later this week, and I feel like I am on my way with my weight loss goal.  For 2012, I have decided that by my birthday (Nov 23) I want to be under 200 pounds.  It's been a long time since I was, and now that I've already lost almost 10 pounds I feel like it's within my reach.  Any further progress toward my long term goal will just be a cherry on top.

Challenges this week - I attended a birthday party and had a piece of cake, we had date night, and I had pizza for dinner twice.  I managed to do well with portions though - I only had 2 slices of pizza and some crazy bread, and when we went out to dinner I did not eat my whole meal.  Probably the most important thing for me personally is being ABLE to still have a piece of cake or a cocktail, as long as I count the points and plan around it.  I absolutely cannot give things up completely, it just doesn't work for me.  This way, it's about learning when I can have treats, and when it's not worth it for me.

I also put up a new organizational tool this week - my new menu board!

 
I bought a cheap white board and put the lines, labels, and title on with Sharpie so it's easy to rearrange when I need to, and to update the board.  I've found that menu planning and shopping with a shopping list of ingredients helps immensely with sticking to Weight Watchers.  Since the goal of the program is about changing the way you eat, learning how to cook and judge healthy portions is key.  I have a couple of Weight Watchers cookbooks, a Cooking Light cookbook, a Hungry Girl cookbook, and a three ring binder with recipes I've pulled out of magazines (including Weight Watchers Magazine) and recipes from online.  I love that I can use my e-tools to plug in any recipe I find and figure out the points and sometimes reduce them with substituted ingredients.

One of my very favorite resources is Gina's Skinny Recipes, she posts tons of good recipes and tonight I made my favorite - Spaghetti with Sauteed Chicken and Grape Tomatoes.  Just look at it:

source

And yes, it tastes as good as it looks.  I substitute quinoa pasta because I like it better than whole wheat pasta, and it's gluten free for Justin.  It makes four servings, so we have leftovers, and it's only 9 points for a portion that will fill me up completely.

This week, I'll be cooking every night (hopefully) except one that's reserved for leftovers.  I love looking through my cookbooks and picking out our dinners, and I have a place on the menu board to note the location of the recipe.  This week I've got 1/2 old favorites and 1/2 new recipes - I'm really looking forward to the cheddar stuffed burgers!

How was your week?  Do you enjoy trying out new recipes?
 
Starting Weight 1 (Feb 2009):  267 lbs
Starting Weight 2 (Dec 2011):  249.8 lbs
Starting BMI:  41.8

Weight Lost:  26.5 lbs
Goal Weight: 160 lbs
Goal BMI:  25.1

Short Term Goal 1: 237.8 (5%)
Short Term Goal 2: 225.8 (10%)

Long Term Goal: 107 lbs
To Go: 84.4 lbs