Lifetime Update; Week ending 02/06/2011

For what I was expecting to be an uneventful week, it turned into a pretty eventful one after all.  Let me begin by mentioning that I gained this week.  Just a little tiny .8 that I am not even upset about.  I knew it was going to happen, and I am over it.  Big deal.  Moving on.

I had some major success this week on the treadmill that I am super proud of.  I not only got my ass on it twice, but each time I ran a little farther and a little faster!  I got myself a little motivation with the Shamrock Run coming up in March so that is helping a lot!  I even signed KT up for the fitness walk portion of the 5k so she can chase my ass down the streets of Portland with her stroller.  I haven't yet decided if I will allow her to poke me with a sharp stick, or beat me with a horse whip to get me to run faster, we will have to see how well my attempt at training goes before making that decision! 

I gained this week mostly because I ate every single point I could get my grubby little hands on.  I am sure that I underestimated on many of the things that I ate as I didn't measure or weigh most of what I ate as my scale broke forever ago and I am yet to replace it.  I had a few big meals that pushed me over the edge, mostly being the amazing Blue Velvet Burger at my favorite local burger joint.  I have no clue how many points it is, as it contains an ungodly amount of both blue cheese crumbles and blue cheese dressing.  I guesstimated as best I could, but believe you me, I enjoyed every last bite of that wonderful burger.  In fact, I should have stopped eating it about half way thru but burgers make terrible leftovers.  And those wonderful thin little crunchy awesome fries that come with it....yea, they are bottomless...but I only had the portion pictured.  I wanted more...but I controlled myself...as much as I possibly could under the circumstances.  I blame my entire overindulgent blue cheese dripping experience on KT.  She made the terrible mistake of planning her day in such a way that she could get some fast food andand still have points left to spare! And then, she had the audacity to text me about how excited she was about being on a plan that allowed her to have a cheeseburger with fries for dinner!  So because she put it into my head, I had to have a cheeseburger and fries for dinner as well.  Unfortunately, I wasn't as dilligent at planning as her and went over my points for the day.  Not to worry, I punished her for her mistake...well...that isn't true...I haven't punished her yet...I am waiting until she least expects it, then I will spring it on her.  She is quite tough so I have to get at her when her defences are down or I will end up hurting myself. 
I also had our big annual Chili Cook-off at work on Friday, which I never win, but always enter.  I took some great photos of my chili making process for a future post.  I love making low point Weight Watchers chili.  It is so quick and easy and just plain satisfying!  I make mine with lots of beans and peppers and of course ground turkey!  I did win in the Best Name category for my chili, but since I didn't pick the name, I don't really count it and I gave the prize to the person who named it for me.  (She called it Double Bonus Bean Chili since it had two types of beans, black and kidney, and we got two bonuses this year.)

KT and I have started a lovely tradition of going to Subway for lunch on Fridays (this week we went on Thursday due to the chili thing) which I love.  We walk there since it is only a few blocks from the office.  It gives us a great chance to break away and get some activity in, while splitting a healthy lunch.  Since foot longs are back to $5 each we get one and split it!  I really love eating our sammies and laughing together for an hour at then end of the week.  It is a really great way to wrap up the week and get the weekend started on the right foot!

Speaking of the weekend, as many of you know by now, Sunday was the Super Bowl.  Personally, I could give less than two shits about football.  (Have you ever thought about how stupid that saying is?  Less than two shits?  Wouldn't that be one shit?  Just stupid.)  KT's mother and step-dad came to town and she invited me and the Man over to watch the game.  She made a whole spread of Weight Watcher food and had a spreadsheet pulled up on her computer with the points and serving size for each item.  We had the Salsa Chicken that I posted a recipe for a while back, with all the fixin's, including these super cute 100 cal (1 pt+) packets of guacamole which were super delish, beans, taquitos, queso dip, and I brought a tray of crudites, fruit salad and 1 Pt+ mini cupcakes.  We all ate until we were stuffed and then plopped in front of the TV to enjoy some football.  (And by 'We all', I mean they did.  I brought homework and watched the commercials and the terrible half time show.) 

KT earned her very first, and very big NSV (non-scale victory) on Sunday and she was super proud of herself for not over indulging on junk like she usually does on Super Bowl Sunday.  I say she was proud...because...well...she had her first gain this week.  It was a big traumatic event for her and I think she is pretty calm about it now, but she cried all through our meeting today, and I am sure most of the afternoon as well.  It took her a while to come to terms with it as she felt the need to find some thing to blame the gain on.  Which I think is normal and natural.  We walked through it together and I gave her some tough love, and some actual love to get it all smoothed out.

The thing about this gain, though small, was that it was totally unexpected.  She did everything right during the week.  She ate all her daily points, a good portion of her weeklies, and she got in some activity every day.  She tracked.  She portioned.  She planned.  She did it all!  And she was still up a small fraction of a pound.  The hardest question I think any Weight Watcher leader, or supporter has to answer is "I did everything right, why didn't the plan work?"  I pulled out every little thing I could think of to help her feel better, but none of it worked.  We looked over her tracker.  We talked about maybe she was eating the wrong things, or even not eating enough during the day to save points for dinner.  I sought out some solluce for her on Twitter and our Leader and a Receptionist pulled her aside to offer some help.  In the end, it came down to the fact that sometimes, these things happen and there is nothing we can do about it but keep trying.  Overall, I think it worked.  She told me earlier that she feels much better about it.  I think she is lying a little, but that is fine.  I know she won't quit the plan, and I know she will continue to work just as hard as before.  This little gain won't derail her!  (Big thanks go out to all of you that reached out to KT on Twitter and offered her some feedback.  I know it meant a lot to her, and to me!)

In closing, if any of you have any words of wisdom that helped you thru a gain, either expected or unexpected, leave them as a comment!  I would love to hear them! (And so would KT!)