Soul Searching For A New POINT Of View

I woke up with a lot on my mind this morning. It all had to do with my weight loss journey. I haven't been happy with the way things are going, or shall I say, not going. If you're a regular reader, you know I keep lamenting about my difficulty with getting to my WW goal weight. I've been playing with those last 10 pounds for months now and it's wearing on me. I was thinking today that you are all probably tired of listening to me winge and whine about it, too! But, this has become a place to not only document my eats for the day. I realize it is a therapeutic exercise to blog every night. I write about my frustrations with myself, my trials and tribulations and it all seems to help me move on and be able to start over when I've gone off track. Sometimes, I feel badly to have you all put up with my boo-hoos and pity parties, but I began this blog as a tool to help me through the remainder of my weight loss, and as much as I don't want to bore you with it all, I have to maintain the integrity of why I started this blog to begin with. That being said, I really did some soul searching today. I was feeling like I've lost it. Lost my desire to keep losing. Lost my will to keep going with this and hit goal. I thought maybe this is a sign that I am just done. I am okay at this weight and I should just get on with my new healthy life. But, I'm not feeling it. I need to keep going, but how do I get the strength to keep going, the drive, the will? Well, I came upon THIS article on Wellsphere that gave me the answer I was looking for. It's not will power that's missing; it's WANT POWER! This article spoke volumes to me! It's exactly the boost I needed. So I give you my New Point of View: There is no such thing as will power, only want power! Spread the word, not the icing!!!





So, I came up with a new plan for myself today. I devised it over my breakfast of a whole wheat cinnamon raisin english muffin with a tsp. butter for 3 POINTS...


Okay, this may sound weird to those of you that count WW POINTS, but I think this may be my answer. I am going to start my tracking day with lunch. I will start off with my 21 POINTS at lunch and subtract the day going to breakfast the next morning. Why? Well, it seems that I really have trouble in the afternoons with snacking. So, I thought if I start at lunch, make lunch bigger and end with breakfast, if I had an "incident" or maybe overate a little in the afternoon, it wouldn't be that big of a deal to only have a couple of POINTS left for breakfast. But, if I kept it the same and overate leaving me only a few POINTS for dinner, that would leave me feeling deprived and sad. I know this may seem like a strange way to look at it. It's mind games. It may or may not work or make any difference at all, but it dawned on me today and I felt excited to try out this "experiment". We know all that matters is "calories in, calories out" in a 24 hr. period, so who cares what meal starts your 24 hr. day, right?


So, I decided to embark on my new plan at lunch, making it as "big" as necessary to feel full. Guess what? I wasn't so hungry today! Murphy's Law. But, I know that the afternoon has been rough lately, so I just ate what I was in the mood for and therefore, had lots of POINTS for later, just in case. Lunch was an almond butter and sugar free jelly sammie with carrots and sour cream and onion rice chips for 6 POINTS...

and a Grande Mocha Lite Frap for 2 POINTS while picking up a few things at the supermarket...

Well, that took me all the way to dinner! I decided on a quick dinner of Trader Joe's Chicken Chow Mein (split with big daughter) for 6 POINTS...

and for dessert, a Weight Watchers CandyBar Ice Cream Bar for 3 POINTS...

That leaves me with 4 POINTS for breakfast tomorrow! I know it's just switching things around, but for some reason, I felt much better using my tracker this way. If anything, it's at least a fun twist on my "old" program. I'll still be blogging the same way, beginning with my breakfast, but I'll just be counting that breakfast with my previous day's POINTS.

If you made it through this everlasting post, I commend you! Thank you for listening to my rambling and for all the wonderful comments and suggestions. I really appreciate you coming along for my crazy ride :)

Have a great night !

Books, Bloggers And Brainless

The husband and I had a movie/date night at home last night. We got a movie for us and a movie for the daughters. They watched upstairs and we had our "date" downstairs. It was fun and no babysitter needed! Anyway, it got too late and I was too tired to blog, so here's my update from yesterday...


I woke up to some beautiful weather and was really itching to go for a run. My cheek is still a bit chubby and my stitches are still intact, so my gut was telling me to wait until everything was healed totally. Instead, I headed to the basement for a 40 minute stint on the elliptical with my weighted vest and did 20 tricep dips and 20 wall pushups. Good enough!

Breakfast was an open faced omelette with spinach, salsa and 1 oz. Cabot's 75% reduced fat cheese. Mmm... I love salsa on eggs! I had a slice of TJ's Sprouted Flourless Wheat Bread, all for only 3 POINTS...

I was really jonesing for some coffee this morning, too, but wasn't in the mood for something warm. I decided on a Vanilla Frappuccino with whip! I used unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze this time and some sugar free vanilla syrup and topped it with 1 tbsp. lite whip. This was a great 1 POINT treat!

After breakfast, the daughters and I went to a Used Book Sale over at little daughter's school. I was so excited for this! What a dork, right?? I could have spent hours there and lots of cash! Although, everything was priced at either $1 or $2, so you can't feel bad about spending with that bargain price. I scored some cool cookbooks...

And some summer beach reads...

The daughters picked up about 4 books each, too. It was a great time!

It was such a beautiful day that we ate most of our meals outside. So relaxing! My lunch was a Boca Bruschetta Burger topped with 1 tbsp. hummus (thanks to Kate for that AMAZING idea!) and roasted peppers on an Arnold Sandwich Thin. I had some soy crisps and a fuji apple on the side. A delish 6 POINT lunch...

Later, for a snack, I couldn't wait to dig into this....

Ever since seeing them on Kelly's blog, I had to have them! I have been searching high and low and finally came across them in Target. I chose the chocolate cookie caramel pecan flavor. Nuggets of goodness...

I think Kelly described these as "crack" and I would have to agree! Definitely leave you wanting more. Don't know if I could buy these again due to danger potential :) But, they are a fun and tasty 2 POINT treat.

After cleaning out my car, cleaning out the garage and running an errand, I wasn't in the mood to make a grand dinner. I pulled out a serving of Rigatoni(actually Ziti) with Three Cheeses from the freezer and heated that with some leftover asparagus. I made a side salad of tomato, cucmber and red onion dressed with a little olive oil and balsamic. Another outdoor dining 7 POINT meal...

Before we settled into our movies, I grabbed a Weight Watchers Candy Bar Ice Cream for a melty 3 POINT dessert...(sorry for the bad pic)

I won't embarass myself by telling you the brain cell deteriorating movie we watched! We had some good laughs, so it was worth losing a few brain cells :)

I just want to say how great it is to be part of this blogging community! I have gotten so many awesome ideas from you all and have tried things I might not have come across otherwise! Thanks so much for all the inspiration!

Enjoy the day and I'll be back tonight :)

Chubby Chipmunk

I've recovered nicely from my oral surgery. Thank you all so much for the well wishes! I really didn't have any pain last night, but took the Advil just in case. I have some swelling today which is making me resemble a chipmunk or squirrel with a big nut in the side of it's mouth, but it doesn't hurt so I can put up with it.

I didn't want to do any hard core exercise this morning because of my stitches. I decided that the elliptical wouldn't be too bouncy, so I did 40 minutes wearing my weighted vest. I kept it at a slower pace and it was just fine. I with a quick, easy breakfast after my workout. A banana date breakfast cookie and 1/2 banana was the perfect 3 POINT choice...

It was beautiful weather today, but I didn't spend much of it outdoors. Most of the day was spent still getting the house in order, mountains of laundry and other mundane chores. Drudgery! I enjoyed the quiet in my house though. I didn't even turn on the TV until lunchtime. I was feeling pretty hungry, so I thought I would give a "normal" lunch with crunch a try and see how my mouth could handle it. I had a chicken taco wrap (basically a repeat of last night's dinner - I added extra lettuce, tomato and a squirt of light ranch) along with some grapes and soy crisps for a hearty 8 POINT lunch...

It went down just fine ;)

I came across these guys during my last supermarket trip and decided to have them for a snack...

There are 4 dried apricots in this little bag. Ridiculous, right?? I can't help it; I'm a sucker for packaging! Advertisers should love me! Anyway, these are super good for you, chock full of antioxidants, fiber and potassium. One package is 70 cal., 0 gr. fat and 2 gr. fiber for 1 POINT.

I really wasn't in the mood to make dinner tonight. We got home late from little daughter's dance class, so I just did some heat and eat for everyone. I bought one of these Kashi frozen meals that were half price and thought I would give it a try...

I liked the nutritionals...only 5 POINTS...

I have to say, I didn't have high hopes that I would like this. I don't like many frozen dinners, but this one was pretty good. The lasagna noodles were whole grain, there were nice diced veggies throughout and even lentils! I didn't love the sauce, though. It's a little too zesty jarred Ragu-ish for me. I'm picky in the sauce department. Other than that, I thought it tasted good for a "dinner in a pinch". I served mine with some steamed asparagus for a filling 5 POINT meal...

With such a low-POINT dinner, I had plenty of room for dessert! I was excited to try these...

Yummmmm....

These are terrific! Think "frozen Snickers bar"! Only downside is they are a little POINTy for the size. To give you an idea...

I think you can get a lot more from other desserts for 3 POINTS, but if you have the POINTS to spare, give these a try! You won't be sorry. Unless you eat more than one. Which I definitely wanted to do :)

The husband just got home from work travel, so I'm signing off to catch up with him. Have a great night, everyone!!!!