Weigh In 6/18

I weighed in on Thursday for my first post-Wii-Active weigh in. I was hopeful, but at the same time, I knew I hadn't been "good" all week either, so I wasn't entirely sure.

I posted good numbers! I was down 1.4 for a total of 76.4 pounds gone. I was very happy with that and will take it and run!

The meeting was about eating breakfast. I hate eating breakfast. Of all the changes I've made on WW, eating breakfast has been the hardest, harder even than exercising. There aren't a whole lot of breakfast foods I like, for starters. Here's a short laundry list of what I do not like: English muffins, eggs, cheese, most dairy products, French toast, melon, coffee, orange juice. See the problem?

I've been sticking to 3 basic things: Nutrigrain waffles (4 pts with a little butter flavored light syrup), WW bagels and LF cream cheese (4 pts), and instant oatmeal (2 pts). It gets mighty boring. But I'm persevering with it. Lately, it's been 10:00 or later before I eat breakfast, but I'm really still making the effort to get it done. I've noticed that when I eat it, it does seem to keep me more on track for the rest of the day and those weeks I eat breakfast, I do better at weigh in.

I still like my Thursdays. The leader is a little sticker happy, she needs no incentive to hand out bravos--this week she gave one to a woman who gained 2 pounds just for having the courage to admit she made banana muffins :-) And she gives them out with a little "Woo hoo!" after each one. It's kind of funny. I kept my mouth shut so I didn't get one this week. But I bet I almost did!

A Preliminary Report on Wii Active

So I've been hearing a lot of buzz about Wii Active by EA Sports. I was getting rather tired of Wii Fit--as much as I enjoyed the 'game' aspect of it, how many times can you do Free Step without going totally crazy? Stepping up and down off the platform for 30 minutes is maddening, but it really was the only way to get a decent work out.

When I hit 75 pounds, I decided I should reward myself and Wii Active immediately sprang to mind. Unlike Wii Fit, Wii Active is relatively easy to find and at my first stop, I was able to get a copy. I bought it Saturday and didn't get a chance to crack it open till Monday. I really didn't know what it was all about, but a friend on Facebook kept posting that she was getting quite a work out using it.

Active comes with a leg band for the nunchuck and a resistance band for arm exercises. When you log on, you create a fitness profile where you put in your height and weight, customize your avatar to look like you, and choose a personal trainer. That's right, I said choose a personal trainer. You can have either a male or female trainer (I chose the female for now), although I'm not really sure why other than the dude looks like a drill instructor and I thought the female would be a little more easy going. Ha ha, I laugh!

Then you can start. There is a 30 day challenge you can do, which exposes you to a variety of different exercises and customizes a workout for you. In addition, you can take daily quizzes and determine if what you're doing away from Active will be affecting your results (for instance, in the lifestyle quiz, it asks you how many sodas you've had to drink versus how many vegetables you've eaten). You can also add in any additional exercise you get away from Active, such as housework, gardening, walking, etc. If you fill out the entire diary each day AND do the corresponding work out, you get a series of trophies in your trophy case. It's funny, but it really does motivate you to do it!

The work outs themselves are strenuous. I have selected a low level of strenuousness not really knowing what I was getting into and am I ever glad I did! These first two days have kicked my butt! The activities include walking, running, lunges, squats, tennis, presses, curls, and more. Yesterday, my arms and knees felt like jelly. Today, my thighs are KILLING me.

The program almost shames you into working hard. It congratulates you when you're doing well, but when you are having trouble keeping a steady pace, it says things like, "Oh well, everyone has hiccups along the way"... I wanted to smash the TV in, as I was running when she said that, and I am not a runner, have never been a runner, and can't remember the last time I ran for any reason.

It gives you a SERIOUS work out--sweat pouring, heart pounding, muscles pushing, serious. I am very, very excited to see where the 30 days puts me out at when I've completed them. Some people are reporting losses of as much as 20 pounds. I'd take half that amount. As you are working, it keeps a running tally in the top corner of the screen of how many calories you've burned during the workout. Today I broke 200. Yesterday I did more than 175. Fantastic!

I'll continue to update as I learn more about this program. I admit, it's fun and it's nice to have instructional videos to show you what to do for each exercise so you do it properly. The only trouble I've had is the squats--my knees just really won't allow it. But you are able to skip any exercises you can't do, so that's nice.

Happy 75!

So this morning I was sitting around and I decided to get on Wii Fit and see what the numbers were looking like. I wasn't too hopeful, but I wanted to see, since I knew this weekend is going to be a minefield of food related issues. Notably lunch today with a friend, dinner out with my sister for a book signing, lunch out tomorrow with a friend, and dinner at Elizabeth's house tomorrow night. But also, we are shuffling Leah off for an overnight with her cousin Friday night, and I just knew how much I would like to sleep in a little bit. (although I probably won't sleep a wink wondering what's going on!)

So I hopped on Wii Fit and the numbers showed a decline of 1.1 pounds. It showed an overall drop of a couple pounds since my last weigh in on 5/30, when I went up 1.4 pounds and decided "SCREW WEIGHT WATCHERS!" (to be fair, we weren't in town last week for my weigh in, since we went to Rhode Island)

So I thought I'd go today. I thought I'd at least get back to 74 pounds and then on the following Saturday I could go again and hopefully hit 75.

So I packed Leah up real quick and we headed over to the center and barely made it in time for the meeting. I stepped on the scale and it showed a 3.8 pound loss for a total of exactly 75 pounds. I was like, "No way!" I mean, seriously, I was SHOCKED.

So I decided to stay and celebrate and get my 75 pound award. This time last year, I attended a Thursday morning meeting and HATED it--it was a huge group and a lot of real chatterboxes taking over the meeting. So I was stunned when I walked in and the room was almost empty. Of the 15 or so people who were there, there were 2 new moms and everyone else was in the 55+ crowd. A woman sat next to me and we got chattering about Leah and stuff and it turned out that her motivation has been flagging. She lives near us on this side of town and we got talking about how we could be motivation buddies for each other, and it just felt so nice to have support bang! right off the bat like that. I've been attending on Saturdays for a year and never once has anyone ever said hello to me.

So the meeting started and it started off with celebrations. When I got my 75 pound award, the place went crazy. It was awesome! The leader, Bobbie, said "This girl has gotten rid of Nicole Richie off her body!" Hilarious! :-)

The meeting was great--everyone, including me, participated in the discussion about getting exercise for free. I really liked Bobbie's style of leadership. When it was over, another lady came over to chat about Leah and Bobbie came over too and we all started gabbing about a million things while Leah contentedly slurped at a bottle and was adored.

Long story short, I'm switching to the Thursday 10:30AM meeting. For one thing, Saturdays at 6:30 just really aren't an option for me any more. It's too early and I'm too tired. I've also been using Saturdays as an excuse not to track or do anything over the weekends, and then the weekends slowly extend themselves into the weekdays, and then it's Wednesday and I'm all "Crap! I have to weigh in in 3 days" and panicking. I think going on Thursday will keep me on track for longer. And now that I have people at the meetings that I am accountable to as well as all of you on line, I feel like it'll be better to go then. So I am really excited about this change! We'll see how it goes.

For now, I'm shooting for my next goal of 80 pounds. I'm going to go looking for Wii Active this weekend, the new add on to Wii Fit. I enjoy Wii Fit, but apparently Wii Active gives you a hell of a work out. I'm also going to dust off Mr. Simmons this weekend and get back into the swing of things. All easier without Leah around. I've got to start exercising when she's napping.

So that's it! I figure I'm at the halfway point to my goal--I wanted to lose about 150-160 pounds. I have my next physical scheduled with Dr. Leonard for September 25th and I'll consult with him about what he thinks I should be shooting for. Hope to see less of myself next week! :-)