The Healthy Tales

Posts Tagged ‘weight loss’

Today I rejoined Weight Watchers.  I didn’t officially join in as that would be an extra budget expense I can’t afford right now, but I did “rejoin” at home today with my pen, paper, and the scale.  I hopped on the Wii Fit Balance board to take my Starting Weight and my Wii Fit Age so that I can track my progress along this fun journey.  I am not participating in any challenges right now but I’m hoping to remember to check with the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans in time to sign up for their next challenge. Their normal weekly weigh in is on Wednesday but I feel that stretching it out till Wednesday gives me an excuse to overdo it on the weekend and “fix” things by the time I face the scale again. Normally, that means a 0 weight loss and normally a 0 weight gain each week. Not very motivating as you can see. So I’m just going to be a tad early for the Wednesday Weigh in and try to keep myself on track all week.

So according to the Wii Fit ->
Starting Weight: 153.2
Wii Fit Age: 34 years old

Goal: 1 pound lost in 2 weeks, 10 pounds lost by Thanksgiving. Wii Fit age equal to my current age of 27.

I’ve tried off and on to be a meal planner. In fact, last Christmas, my father found a cute chalkboard to hang in my kitchen to help with my meal planning. At first, I was really good about writing the names of the recipes I wanted to cook that week or in the next two weeks. Then I started slacking off.

Now that we are back from the wedding festivities, honeymoon, and work is slowing down, I want to try and start meal planning again. I read about it on other blogs and in my weekly Weight Watchers meetings as a great way to help keep grocery prices down and lose weight. With everything that has gone on lately, Mike and I need help with both of those things.

So as I sit here on a Sunday night and plan our weekly trip to the grocery store, I want to ask. Do you have any tips or tricks for meal planning? Does meal planning work for you? Have you found any other benefits from planning your meals in advance? How far in advance do you plan?

For Christmas, my parents gave Mike and I a Wii.  We thought it would be a fun thing to have for us to bond since he loves video games and I can’t figure out how to use the controller.  So once I ordered our Wii for my mom I started hearing about the Wii Fit.  So you know what came next.  I ordered a Wii Fit for us and one for her since she was also getting a Wii for Christmas.  I have to say I truly love the Wii Fit as it is a fun way to workout.  I especially love seeing “Calorie Incenerator” when I finish Hula Hooping.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been too good lately with the Wii Fit.  I weigh myself once a week for Think Thin Thursday and that is about it.  Part of the reason is because I started using Jillian Michael’s 30 day shred and part of it is pure laziness.  Enter Fitness Friday.

I’ve been looking for new Wii games to play and came across the Wii Mommies.  It is a group of moms (and non-moms) using the Wii to lose weight and it can be any game not just the Wii Fit.  I am super excited and I am going to start joining in on Fitness Friday to talk about how I am using my Wii to get fit and stay in shape.  I have my afternoon mapped out since work is slow.  Leave at 12, eat lunch, hop on the Wii, then go run a mile on the treadmill.  I might give Jillian a run for her money this afternoon but I’m not too sure.  I might have to bring her to San Antonio with me instead.  So happy Friday and if you have a Wii come join in the fun with the Wii Mommies.

Think Thin Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Bridgette over on the No So Blog.  I have been participating off and on since November 2008 on my other blog, The Blonde Diaries, but decided that it fits better over on this blog since I’m trying to journal about being healthier and exercising.  I have to admit I can’t remember the last time I participated.  I think subconsciously I have decided to not post unless I’m being good.  Well, that needs to change!  So I am going to vow to participate every week from here on out.  I really have no excuse and with this new blog, I will be able to tell fairly easily if I’ve participated or not since the post count is still a little low.

So let’s get going.  I did weigh myself last Thursday with every intention of blogging about it.  I was at 150.4 per my Wii Fit which is the scale I am using.  This morning’s weigh in had me at 150.1.  So a .3 pound loss.  Not a huge loss but a move in the right direction.  I think eating soup for lunch and light dinners has been working in my favor.  There is also the dvd workout I’m doing – Jillian Michael’s 30 day shred.  I’ve only done 4 days but I am feeling really good doing it.  I was hoping for a larger loss but I have been eating out quite a bit with a friend as she is going through a rough time at work – layoffs and pay cuts.  She’s made it through all of that with just a 5% cut so hopefully things will get better and we will quit meeting up frequently for drinks and gorging on food.

I am hoping to hit 146 before my friend’s wedding on April 25th so it will be back to the gym, more 30 day shred, and running on the treadmill.  I am going to try and trade soup for fish or other protein based meals.  Wish me luck!

We all know dark chocolate or pure cacao can be good for your health but who really likes going around eating dark chocolate all the time.  I know I prefer milk chocolate to the bitter dark chocolates.  But this isn’t what I want this post to be about: milk vs. dark. vs pure cacao.  Instead, I want to write about my new favorite way to work chocolate into my diet.  In fact, I eat it about every day and it only costs 1 Weight Watcher point.  No it’s not by eating 1 bite of a Snickers bar, Hersey’s bar, or 1 Ghiradelli chocolate carmel square (though that is an awesome way to spend a point).  Instead it is actually much more filling and can be eaten as breakfast with some fruit, or a mid-afternoon snack, or dessert after dinner, or to top things off after you workout.  So what is it?

“It” is called Vitalicious Chocolate vitatop muffins.  These are decadent treats that you buy from vitalicious.com and pop into your freezer.  When you are craving one you just pop it into the microwave and heat for 30 seconds and enjoy.  There are tons of flavors and they are my new favorite Chocolate fix because I feel like I am eating something really bad but it really isn’t. Vitatops are all approximately 100 calories and contain at least 4 grams of fiber.  I first heard about them a few years ago thanks to HungryGirl and then I was reminded about them again at a Weight Watchers meeting.  I finally broke down and bought some on sale and fell in love.  I eat on average one per day usually with a half cup of fresh berries and a glass of milk.  Absolutely fabulous as it tastes like a chocolate covered whatever-berry and it is a great way to spend 3 points out of your daily allowance.

Whoever said chocolate was not a weight loss friend has never tried a Vitatop!