Week of 9/12 - Check in here!

[psophia17]

Happy Monday!

I'm really excited today - and too nervous to eat - so have high hopes that Wednesday's weigh-in will go well. Maybe I won't crack 180, but it'll be close.

This past week, I wasn't great with nutrition, but I tried to make healthy choices at Wendy's, McDs, and Pizza Hut, and aside from the several candy bars I ate on the go, I think I did pretty well all-around. Apartment hunting is not good for your eating habits, but it doesn't have to kill you.

Fitness bit, though. I didn't get in any workouts because I spent all my evenings running from one apartment viewing to the next.

But I feel like I've turned a corner in my lifestyle change. I was craving raw veggies the other day, and while the candy bars were good, I would've rather had an apple. For me, that's a huge change. Another thing I have noticed is that I feel like running. Using my newfound muscles and strength and power to get somewhere more impressive than the top of the step. It's a new feeling for me - and I like it.

How are you all doing? Julie, especially - I'm thinking of you often, and hope you're doing well and that the meds and rest are doing their job.

[jerseygirl07067]

Got in two cardio workouts last week of 50 mins each on the bike. Also did one strength training workout for upper and one for lower body doing my favorite Cathe Pyramid tapes.

Nutrition was pretty good, too. Eating more fruits and veggies again on the modified Zone. I think I've been eating a bit more carbs than the official 40-30-30 but that's okay. The way I see it, the muscle I'm gaining needs carbs too, as does my little nursing piggy, Julia.

Petra, funny you should mention craving raw veggies. I went to a football tailgate this weekend and felt sick after eating two jumbo sized chocolate chip cookies!

Who would have ever thought...could the chocolate queen be dying a slow death??

Marcy

[Lynnie]

Good job guys !

Hopefully your impressive achievements will inspire me. After a little self pity when I found out my knee is far worse than I ever imagined(only some strands of the acl replacement are left, the meniscus is in fragments, and there is more chondryl loss... next surgical step after a scope to clean it up is an osteotomy where they saw the tibia off and reset it to take the pressure. hopefully far off), I have almost come to accept that I'll never run again, and have been checking out gyms near my work and at home eliptical machines. Also, having drowned my sorrows in cafe con leches and pastelitos, I feel kinda bloated and pudgy and not too great, and miss feeling healthy. So I am going to throw away the rest of the "we are having another hurricane in south florida cookies" and do my best to get back on track eating wise.

I did of course go power walking about 3 times this weekend, in part cause I was in denial about my knee. If I can still walk, it can't be that bad, right.... Its sore, so I think I am going to wise up and focus more on biking and the elipse. I am also going to treat myself to those cathe tapes. and do upper and modified lower body workouts.

So, if I lose another 10 pounds, not only will I look better, but it'll be less weight for my knee to carry around.

Q: when you have bad news or a bad day, what do you do instead of reaching for the chocolate ?? I need to recondition myself so I don't slip off the healthy eating cycle as easily. Can you trick yourself out of it, by making yourself promise to wait 15 minutes, and then if you make it, not wanting the treat anymore ??

Sorry for the loooooooong post. This is sort of my catharsis, since I don't want to whine to dh anymore. He's not really an athlete, so he doesn't really get it. he's also pissed that i ate the hersheys kisses he bought for his secretary and left in the fridge for two weeks. in my defense, i didn't eat them till the orthopaedic surgeon called on saturday morning and told me i wouldn't be playing soccer this (or any) season. AND, i didn't eat the whole bag.

Talk to you next week. I will have a positive post, and have improved my eating habits and started rehab and smart exercising.

[jerseygirl07067]

Lynnie,

Sorry to hear about your knee. Hopefully the rehab will go well.
As for the chocolate, I can't keep it in the house, as it's my crack for sure. I find that my craving is satisfied with a glass of Ovaltine in 1% milk. I feel like it's fairly healthy since you're getting a serving of milk!!
Yes, the Cathe tapes rock! They are hard, and I find it keeps me on the wagon. I figure that if I just worked my a## off, I may as well eat something good so I don't sabotage my efforts! Don't get me wrong, I eat crap too, but if I fall off the wagon all it takes is one of her hard workouts to get me back on track!

Marcy

[psophia17]

Man - that sucks about your knee. Hopefully you find something that will satisfy you in the exercise department soon. I have faith something will :)

"Q: when you have bad news or a bad day, what do you do instead of reaching for the chocolate ?? I need to recondition myself so I don't slip off the healthy eating cycle as easily. Can you trick yourself out of it, by making yourself promise to wait 15 minutes, and then if you make it, not wanting the treat anymore ?? "

The two things I reach for are berries and sorbet. Either of them in mass quantities tastes better to me than chocolate. If I have chocolate in the house, and have berries in the house, I will go for the berries every time. Even better, berries covered in chocolate...oh wait, that's not what you asked :P Anyhow, reaching for something super-flavorful will usually do the trick, and I have recently read that 12 almonds will cut the craving for chocolate, too. So...buy some almonds? Or hershey's kisses with almonds...oh wait - don't do that :9

Trial and Error?

[milesmom]

"Q: when you have bad news or a bad day, what do you do instead of reaching for the chocolate ?? I need to recondition myself so I don't slip off the healthy eating cycle as easily. Can you trick yourself out of it, by making yourself promise to wait 15 minutes, and then if you make it, not wanting the treat anymore ?? "


My mom (a WW person) loves the swiss miss fat free hot chocolate... I think the warm + chocolate helps a person feel better.

[alleyoop]

How about fat-free, sugar-free chocolate pudding? Love the stuff!

[JulieL]

Lynne, that is a very hard place to be. I hope you can find a new love in the relm of physical fitness. It's hard to give up an old love. My DH is a runner and due to injury his goal of running a marathon got killed when he was at 20 miles cause his knee just had it. He had physical theropy and it's better, but still flaims up time to time. It was really hard on him. He's not sure if he'll ever be able to do many long distance runs in a month anymore.

Oh I posted on your Cathe question as well. :)

[JulieL]

Well, I ended up back in the hospital on thursday once agian for more contractions. My medicine, terebutaline, had been given to me at the highest dosage I could take, and I was still having contractions. So they took me off my meds in the hospital on friday morning, and I stayed for observation. This was done to get me resensitized to the meds at a lower dosage. I got back on my meds on monday, at a lower dosage, and was discharged tuesday.

Baby girl is looking good, and I'm not dialating which is really good news. As of last week she was 4 lbs 2 oz . The frustrating thing is when they took me off my meds over the weekend I had very intense aweful contractions in the evening. What that means for me is when they take me off all my meds in my 36th week, is that I will probably have to deliver early or will go into early labor. So we are still living in a world of the unknown for a while still. I'm doing pretty well back on my meds, and hopefully they won't tap out again in my dosage amount in the next 3 weeks, have no clue what steps we would take then. I'm holding my breath that I make it the next 2 weeks without much complications so I don't have to take magnesium sulfate. So I'm just living the high life on the couch and thankful for every good day I get. Hard to believe I may be holding my little girl in 3 weeks. So that's me, keep up the good work ladies!

Oh and Petra - I remember that feeling too, wanting an apple than something bad, a MAJOR turning point! Good job! :)

[JulieL]

Marcy - did you ever do Muscle Max yet? I'm so happy you enjoy Cathe as much as I do! :)

[jerseygirl07067]

Julie,

Yes, I LOVE it. It's a tough, but fun workout. I think the abs section is awesome too. I do that one each time I want to do abs.
I finally splurged and ordered a high step with the 4 risers, 2 extra risers and a platform step topper. Still waaay cheaper than joining a gym, and IMO more fun and so much more efficient! Time is valuable these days :). For the holidays I think I am going to ask for the gym styles series and the slow and heavy series, or I may cave and just buy them myself! I've been taping the s&h workouts off fit tv, but they're definitely shortened a lot.
Thanks for giving us the update. With each passing day and week you must feel so much relief!!

Marcy

[knaidel]

okay, well it's a little late in the week to be checking it, but I joined WW this morning! I am pretty excited. You know, it's funny, I don;t think most people would say that I look heavy, but I know that I am just sick of "feeling" a bit on the large side. For instance, I have a bunch of cute button-down shirts hanging in my closet, and I feel yucky when I wear them tucked in--Ithere are so many things that I just don't look good in. I also know that my BMI is a bit high. My goal is 10%- 15 lbs. I will then take it from there.

I've been going to the gym now for the past 7 months, but haven't really made changes to my diet.

Today was my first day on WW, and I think I did okay. I think the key for me will be menu planning. I have a feeling that I'm going to be eating a lot of fruits and veggies, and I'm going to need to get creative in terms of food preparation.

[Lynnie]

Julie -
Thanks for the responses. It is very difficult for me to deal with this, since I have been a total jock since I was 8, and had just started getting back into it, and felt more like myself than I have in years. But more importantly, take care of yourself ! Are you on the tablets, or the pump ?? I was on the terbutaline pump with a home monitor thing until my 36th week, too. The baby was born 4 days later, (at 7 lb 9 oz) and the nurses were amazed that it took that long, they would have made bets that he would have come immediately after stopping. Don't get me wrong, the contractions came, fierce and fast, but I didn't dialate any more or go into labor right away.
Good luck, and keep resting !!
Lynn

[JulieL]

Lynn, First - you'll make it, the transition to something else, just focus on the fact you can still be an athlete - even if it is a different kind. But I understand that is hard to deal with.

I'm on the pump and the home monitor system through Matria. Also I'm taking procardia/nefedipine and prometrium every day as well. It's been crazy, but I'm sure you can understand that! I'm having a c/s - so if the contractions come as hard as they were this weekend, it looks like they may do an amniocentisis (?sp) to check her lungs out before the c/s. Or if I do go into actual labor they will take her then as well. Did you go to the hospital when you had the fierce contractions, or did you stay home? This is definately the hardest physical hardship I've ever been through. I can't believe how weak I've become, not to mention fatigued - that's coming from the girl who was working out the whole pregnancy till the day before all this started. My abs and back muscles are shot and walking to the bathroom sometimes is very slow and hard to do, due to the muscles having been strained. I'm thankful it's coming to an end and that our daughter has stayed safe. It all started my 28th week. I'm so thankful we've made it this far!

[psophia17]

Yay Rachel!

If you need any WW tips or pt. values, I've been doing it for a long time so might be able to help. Also, if you have a palm pilot, I can recommend an awesome program for journaling using it that does all the calculations for you.

In the meantime, you might want to check out www.dwlz.com, which has a ton and a half of helpful WW information, including pt. values for tons of different kinds of foods and for restaurants.

As far as menu planning goes, I do my best with that but the real key for me has been portion control. I use a smaller plate than the rest of the family (except for DS), and try to fill it with veggies. I also sneak veggies (like grated carrot) into everything I cook, which adds no points to the meal but makes it feel more substantial. The other thing I really like to do is grill veggies. Skewer them, drizzle with a little italian dressing, and pop them on the grill.

Also, if you can make it a habit to snack on fruit and veggies, that helps a lot, too. It keeps you full for longer, so it's harder to overdo on stuff that's higher in pts.

And at the end of the day, just remember that you can do it!

[Lynnie]

Good old Matria !! I think they made me go to the hospital/doctor's office three times, and that's not including the first time it happened when I went myself after calling my doctor. Don't worry about feeling weak - I recall being impressed by your pregnancy workouts, so if you were in that great of shape, you'll bounce back super quickly. Hang in there !!