Peanut M&Ms and Feeling Good

I feel so good! I'm down another pants size, and people have finally started noticing my weight loss so I'm getting compliments. Yay for me!

Monday night was our weekly weigh-in, where Phil and I both won little awards. He has now lost 10% of his original body weight, a little more than 20 lbs, so he got a keychain and polite applause. I've now lost a total of 16.8 lbs, so I got a little star (you get a star for every 5 lbs, I think) and polite applause. We were asked what's working for us, and we said the first things we thought of, but on reflection, I'd like to go a little deeper into why/how Weight Watchers has been totally the right fit for us.

Phil never did eat a whole lot, but since he home-brews really good beer, he was drinking really good beer in generous quantities. Also, most of his eating was happening at the end of the day, when there was no more opportunity to work off the calories. Now, he eats more for breakfast and lunch, has snacks (which he never did before), eats way more fruits and veggies than before, and plans his after-dinner treats (liquid and otherwise) based on how many WW Points+ he has left for the day. So he isn't eating any less than before, he still eats and drinks what he enjoys, and he's losing weight.

He is also exercising almost every day, which makes a huge difference. Phil wouldn't say this during the WW meeting, but I can tell all of you: he runs a mini-marathon every morning before work. That's a 5K, or 3.2 miles (I think) on the treadmill in the little gym in his office building.

As for me, I was definitely eating too much of the wrong things. I'm also now eating more fruits and veggies, and starting my day with a well-rounded nutritious breakfast. Sounds cliche, but it really is important. I get whole-grain carbs, fruit, protein, and good fat every morning, along with lemon water (see below). It sounds like a lot of food, but what a difference this has made in my day!

I know what I'll be eating for lunch and dinner, so I plan my snacks for the day, leaving Points for something after dinner. If my snacks included a sweet, then after dinner I have fruit. If not, then I get in a little something sweet after dinner. I do not deny myself the sweets, the chocolate, the occasional piece of Blueberry Buckle. If I tell myself I can't have those things, I'm on the road to failure. But if I carefully and thoughtfully include them in my plan for the day, it's a big win-win, and I'm the winner both times! Yesterday for instance, I measured 1/4 cup of Peanut M&Ms into a plastic baggie and put it in my purse. I recorded the 6 points+ value for the treat in my daily points log. When I was running errands, I ate my M&Ms knowing that I could do so without sabotaging my weight loss. It. Was. Awesome.

I also exercise in the pool at Lifetime Fitness, which never hurts, even with fibromyalgia. Water exercise is zero impact, so my knees, my elbows, my sprained this-or-that are not affected in a negative way at all. After class I do a little bit of cardio by swimming laps and jogging in the water. My endurance improves every week. I'm debating whether or not to go back to the big scary weight lifting room upstairs, since I get the whole range-of-motion, stretching, strength-building, and now cardio in the pool without pain.

In addition to the ideas we get from WW, we look for ideas elsewhere for good nutrition and better health. We both start off the day drinking lemon water. We each squeeze half a lemon into a water glass, fill it with water, and drink it down before breakfast or the first cup of coffee. I could tell as soon as we started this it was making a difference. We got the idea from another blogger, amy-newnostalgia.blogspot.com, where she gives 5 reasons for the pre-breakfast lemon water, including maintaining a good Ph level, keeping your skin "clear and glowing," and aiding with weight loss (CHA-CHING!).

I'm feeling good these days for other reasons too. My gastroenterologist has gotten to the root of my digestive troubles, which along with the sprained arm have been keeping me at home and away from the gym/pool. I'm normal-ish again.

So here's where you can help me, my dear readers. I am thinking about taking a zumba class, but I don't really know what it entails. Would those of you who have knowledge of zumba weigh in please, keeping my fibro in mind? Thanks in advance to Shari Jacks McDonald and anyone else who responds.

Thanks for following this Adventure, folks!

Mary Engelbreit meets Martha Stewart

Okay Everyone, I'm back on track! Watching what I eat, and tracking it online at WW. Thank you for being my accountability partners. Next week Monday should be a good weigh in day.

I wish I could go to the gym, I miss it, but not while on this nasty medication. Must stay close to home and plumbing (nuff said). I'm also waiting for the sprained arm to heal up, which is going more slowly than I'd like.

In the meantime...

My 40 Projects in 40 Days (Lent activity, see previous post) is moving along nicely. I set a course to organize our home. Not an easy task. One of the BIG things I wanted to accomplish was to organize my junk drawer. Drawers, actually.

We have a large, 4-drawer chest of drawers in our kitchen, made from leftover cabinetry after a remodel. I designed it, Phil built it. We're good that way.

The original plan was to house all of our table linens, place mats, cloth napkins and the like into one lovely place. But this being My House and not Martha Stewart's House, anything and everything got shoved into those drawers. We also developed not one, not two, but three junk drawers. Who needs that much junk? Not I! Thus the project.

I saw a nice looking junk drawer on Pinterest, with cheerful little plastic bins to keep things tidy. Instead of buying all those bins for the very large drawer I was using, I bought a half-price pack of scrapbook paper and some Mod Podge and went at it, making my own drawer organizer. I used a cardboard box and an old, thick plastic drawer liner which exactly fit the drawer I was using once I taped two sections together.

Finished and filled awesome drawer!!

I sorted, pitched and grouped the three drawers full of junk, and split the remaining stuff into five boxes: keep, put away, give away, yard sale, and give to Phil to figure out what to do with. I put away the stuff that already had a home, like pictures and thank-you notes. I put the give away box and the yard sale box aside to deal with later. The largest box BY FAR was the Phil Box, confirming my suspicion that the real culprit in the mystery of How We Ever Got Three Junk Drawers was NOT ME. That left the "keep" stuff, which would now reside in the new and improved junk drawer.

I laid the plastic drawer liner on the kitchen table, and using the actual stuff from the "keep" box I mapped out with a marker where I wanted the walls of the drawer to be. then I measured and planned, cut up the cardboard box, made 2 1/2" high walls and covered them with the scrapbook paper and Mod Podge. This morning I glued all the dried wall pieces onto the also-Mod-Podged plastic liner, and VOILA! Lovely lovely junk drawer. So lovely it probably needs a new name, like "Efficient Kitchen Management Drawer," or "Mary Engelbreit Meets Martha Stewart Drawer."

Scrapbook paper $9.99
16 oz Mod Podge $8.99
Pretty Junque Drawer - PRICELESS

Drying "walls," and a corner of the marked-up plastic liner

Mod Podged plastic drawer liner before gluing the walls

Finished, beautiful, and ready to be filled

VOILA! 

Looking forward to your reactions!