Where Fat Cells Come to Die (30 lb loss)

[Euthanasia Phase]

Well, here goes.

First, I'm going to follow a Weight Watchers diet. It's not a fad diet so much as a way of monitoring how much I eat - I'm not going to meetings or anything. So instead of counting calories, I'm going to be counting points. Additionally, I'll be trying to exercise 30-45 minutes 6 days a week, though with a college schedule sometimes the work piles up.

You don't need to become a formal member or do any of that fancy crap to do Weight Watchers. You can figure out how many points you get here. This points calculator will tell you how many points a food is based on the nutrition facts and serving size.

Now for some basic information:
Height: 5' 9"
Starting weight: 205
Goal weight: 135
Time: However long it takes. I'm patient as long as what I'm doing works.
Points allowance: 27 per day right now. Once I get to 190-something, it will be 26, 180-something = 25 and so forth.

I will be weighing in daily so I can see how specific habits influence my progress, rather than waiting a week and wondering (if something went wrong) what caused it.

I'll try to post an update daily, because it's really important that I stick with this. It's difficult when nobody at my school is encouraging, which is why I'm here - the people here seem awesome! My journal will include my weight, how many points I (honestly) ate, what exercise I got, and any feelings/frustrations that are weight-related. Every ten pounds I'll be posting a picture as well. Measurements would be nice, but I don't have a tape measure so that'll have to wait. Also, feel free to post in here! Advice, support, whatever it's all good.  

[Stars in my Pocket]

Thanks for the info on Weight Watchers! I've always wanted to know how to do it without the programs, you've really helped out a lot!

Best of luck!  

[Euthanasia Phase]

It's 1:30am here, but this is for the previous day.
Weight: 206 pounds
Points: lost count, but well over 27 (I used some flex points, which usually isn't a good idea).
Exercise: not today (just finished all my immediately due homework)

Lunch: Oriental chicken salad, Diet Dr. Pepper
Dinner: grilled turkey sandwich, mozzarella sticks, one of those "HonestAde" drinks
Snacks: cookie (big one too...oops), 8oz Pepsi can

I started out ok, but between sleeping miserably and trying to readjust after a diet hiatus things fell apart. Additionally, I either sat in class or at a computer all day, so I wasn't active. The problem is motivation - when I REALLY want to lose weight, I follow the program to the letter and it works. This is usually the case when everything else is going well or I think it will. After ******** around with travel arrangements for a lot of the day, hearing that I might not perform in my flute recital because the prof accompanying me was sick, etc. I was in a bad mood and stressed. Stress is usually why I overeat, though I was also very hungry during my evening class.

Not sure how I'm going to get the motivation, but the weight loss has to occur regardless so I'm following the rules tomorrow, as well as hitting the gym. With all the extra work I did today there should be time.  

[Lady Kayura]

Good luck! Motivation is hard to come up with. When you do find something to motivate you, somehow keep it in the front of your mind. That helps.

What I like about weight watchers is some restaurants have their meals and points attached. How handy is that? biggrin

Good luck!  

[Euthanasia Phase]

3/2/2010

Weight: 205.4

Loss: 0.6 lbs

Points: allowed = 27, eaten = 27 (yay!)

Exercise: 30 min. on the bike

Lunch: Cantonese chicken, Diet. Dr. Pepper

Dinner: Chinese beef wrap, skittles, water

Snack: applesauce

Today went really well - not too much to say about it but I anticipate good news on the scale tomorrow morning!

Thanks everyone for your encouragement!  

[Stars in my Pocket]

Congrats on meeting your points! :)  

[themadwriter]

Hey, it's really nice to see someone who's goal and height are really similar to mine (I'm 210 lbs and 5'11"). I really hope you do well in your journey to a healthy weight and I hope that the weigh watchers plan works for you.  

[Euthanasia Phase]

Just got back from a spring break trip with the geology department in Arizona, which was very interesting and for the most part fun. Saw some cool rocks, did some mapping, met some people...I liked the rocks quite a bit. The people, not so much but that's typical.

It's been awhile, and lately I've had good and bad days. I need to be on track all the time instead of half of it. To be fair, it's difficult to follow WW when there's no available nutrition information most of the time. To also be fair, I could have realized when things were getting out of control sometimes. Tomorrow is the weigh in, and from now on I'm sticking to the rules.

I hate being around people IRL, but it's good motivation sometimes. For instance, when all the people you're traveling with go to the hot tub after a long day of hiking and mapping, and for a split second you think you can join them. Then you realize you didn't bring a bathing suit because your old one is two sizes too small and, frankly, you shouldn't be in a swimsuit anyway. Or when you're going out to eat and you're the fattest person there, so each bite becomes an embarrassing moment. Or when everyone's looking through the trip photos and commenting/laughing about each one - until they get to yours, and immediately go to the next one as if you're the most disgusting thing on the planet.

I could rant on and on, but I'm tired and should probably spread the whining over a longer period of time. However, I mean for there to be some weight loss along with the whining too! And a picture - I still need to post my initial 200 lbs pic (which will most likely be from the trip).  

[Roslin]

I'm doing Weight Watchers too, but am not a formal member either. I've been using my mom's old information from like 2002. Some things have changed but the way to calculate the points of food is the same. Like you, I do not attend meetings.

I don't know how much of the "official weight watcher" information you have available but I have a General Foods book that has basic food points and serving sizes for when you don't have access to nutritional information. This was useful in finding points of food in general things my mom would make, like hamburgers, and our tacos and stuff. If you can acquire one of these it may be helpful.

Don't forget to figure out your activity points when you work out so you can have a little something extra at the end of the day if you choose to.

[ In case you were interested in the food companion ]  

[Euthanasia Phase]

@Roslin: Thanks! I'll be sure to check that out.

I weighed myself this morning (it's been a couple of weeks) and my weight is now 204.4, so exactly a pound of loss since last time. Not a lot, but usually on trips I tend to gain about 3 or 4 pounds, so this was actually a big success.

Today, all the dining venues on campus were closed because today's the last day of spring break. I ordered some Chinese food - the minimum amount that they'd deliver. I'm not sure how many points I ate, but I only ate one meal and had 20 points to spend after the soda and fruit rollup, so it probably wasn't too bad. I got the sweet and sour chicken combination platter, but only ate two pieces of chicken, the rice, and the wonton soup. We'll see tomorrow whether or not that was reasonable.

Anyhow, I'm a bit stressed catching up on all the work assigned over break, so I didn't have time to exercise today. Ideally, I'd exercise 6 days a week and take Monday off, but if there's time tomorrow I should work out in case things get even more chaotic later this week.

Also, here's my first in what I hope will be a long line of "every 10 lbs" pictures. I haven't quite gotten down to 200 yet but at my height a four-pound difference isn't noticeable. Boy do I look retarded in this one (that's not a lazy eye either).



This pic is from the spring break trip, where I was mapping geologic formations in Yuma, Arizona. It was a lot of fun!
(The thing around my neck is a hand lens and the brown pouch contains a Brunton compass which is used to measure the alignment of rock outcrops.)  

[Euthanasia Phase]

Today was a long day, and not the best I've ever had. I stayed up all night finishing a research poster for my presentation tomorrow, so now my brain is so fried it's not even funny. I gained weight, too.

GAIN: +2.2 lbs
Weight: 206.6 lbs
Exercise: none. I didn't even have time to sleep gonk
Breakfast: the leftover sweet and sour chicken (no rice)
Lunch: zip
Dinner: two egg rolls
Snack: a few Mike and Ikes candies, unsweetened tea
Points: don't know/27

The gain was really disappointing, since I thought I was handling things well. As people have suggested, it's time to break out the WW book to look up some of these foods rather than thinking "I have 27 points, that'll cover everything." There were a number of factors - salty food, eating too much, drinking a lot of water at 4am and not getting rid of it before weighing, etc. that contributed to this.

Usually when I strictly follow my points I feel slightly hungry. Not starving, but just hungry enough not to be bloated. Therefore, even though I might be able to afford more points, I've stopped for the day in order to keep that slight hunger in hopes of success.

To make matters worse, I'm craving an enormous hot fudge sundae AND pepperoni pizza right now. Everything is accessible. However, I'm damned well going to shed this weight and will put up with it. Tomorrow, I can spend some points to temporarily quell the cravings.

Blech. Time for some sleep, finally. Good night.  

[Roslin]

Are you sure you're actually hungry? I don't know your eating habits but when I first started weight watchers I had to learn what hungry felt like again because before I used to associate hunger with not being stuffed. If you aren't sure if it's really hunger you can drink a glass of water and wait 15 minutes to see if what you're identifying as hunger is really hunger.

Don't fret too much about the weight gain, it's hard at the beginning and weight loss isn't linear. You'll have weeks where you lose 3 pounds, and weeks where you gain 3 pounds, and then maybe a month where you don't really lose anything at all but don't gain either.

I think right now your best bet is to look up the points and proper serving sizes of food. It's kind of funny because some of the portion sizes they give are more than I was ever eating when I was heavier.  

[Euthanasia Phase]

Weight: 204.2
Loss: 2.4 lbs (Most of that was the water weight I gained yesterday.)
In the computer lab again all night, working on three different projects. Not much more to say.  

[Euthanasia Phase]

Weight: 203.6 lbs
LOSS:0.6 lbs

Exercise: none (got three hours of sleep last night thanks to more assignments, luckily things should return to normal tomorrow and I WILL hit the gym)
Points: 27/27
Lunch: pasta with broccoli and alfredo, fountain coke, peppermint patty
Dinner: easy mac, peppermint patty, water

I lost weight, which was good, but I'm still having one of those days where I hate my weight, my looks, don't think I'm smart enough, nice enough, talented enough etc. etc. It's because it's all true...and on a good day I can almost ignore it. Not today though. ******** it, I WANT GODDAMNED PERFECTION!  

[Roslin]

Question: Are you weighing yourself every day?