Was Someone Looking for Me?

Good morning!

Was anyone missing me?  By now, many of my readers may have just assumed I fell off the face of the Earth!  Well let me tell you, for a while there I felt like I did.

Often, doesn’t it seem that we walk thru life with the best laid intentions, for weight loss, to clean up that cluttered corner in our house, to stay better connected with friends.  The reality for all of us humans is there’s a pesky thing called LIFE that gets in the way.  I know personally, last year, with my mom going through a series of health scares, I found myself in a situation where I had a lot of stress on my shoulders.  Rather than using sensible coping, what seemed to soothe me was food.

So me and food, food and me…it’s an ongoing love affair.  I mean I’m from Wisconsin, where not using cheese and butter in 96% of your meal is kind of a sin!  What I didn’t love, however, was that my jeans began causing a muffin top, well let’s face it, the fat under my jeans was just bubbling up into that muffin top, sitting there like an open can of Pillsbury biscuits.  Shorts and tops from the previous summer seemed to have clearly shrunken in the “bad closet air”.  So as I continued to comfort myself with food, it continued to make me more uncomfortable!

Yes, I understand that sounds crazy, but it’s true, and I’m realizing it’s a cycle.  You feel stressed, so you eat, and I’m not talking about eating kale and lean meats either.  Then you gain weight, which is upsetting, so what seems to be the solution?  Nooo silly, if diet or working out was my answer I wouldn’t be back here re-losing this weight!  Yeah, my answer was more bad food.

Clearly, that only compounded the problem.  Being diagnosed with Graves Disease last year, aka a hyperactive thyroid, I continued my reckless eating, and what had once been burned off by my over-functioning thyroid began to settle in for a nice visit.  I got to the point this fall that I didn’t even want to go shopping, and I felt terrible about myself.  I finally said enough is enough, I refuse to go up another size and undo all the hard work I did to lose in the first place!  I know the steps, I CAN do this, I just had to decide I WOULD do this!

So three weeks ago tomorrow, I reopened my handy Weight Watchers app.  I ever soooo gently got on the scale, cursed it for a minute, then accepted the reality I had caused.  I fool-proofed the house by banishing all the badness and making friends with the veggie, fruity, fiber-filled and lean items in my grocery store.  Last week I was down 9.6lbs!  There are many, many, maaany (lol ok I’m dramatic) more pounds to go, but I feel that with my village behind me, there’s no way I can’t make it.

So after this quick hello and catch up for those who aren’t familiar, I will once again begin sharing my recipe, food and fitness ideas and tricks, thoughts on it all, what I feel works, and what didn’t hit the mark for me.  This time around I’m working to make my diet feel as “normal” in my eyes as possible, and thus far I haven’t once felt deprived.  So let’s get started once again on this journey together, because you can start over as MANY time as you like, it’s your life!  Thank you all for your support, I promise to keep it as fun, informative, and interesting as possible!

**Oh and photo cred to our pup Rufus.  Caught him waking up from a nap, and that’s how I feel, reawakened and ready to make this happen!  So I felt it was fitting for this post, and let’s face it, he’s just cute, so I couldn’t resist!  😉

Love and Blessings, now go be great today!!

 

Who’s That Kid With The Oreo Cookie?

I know you didn’t just “read” that title.

You sung it, didn’t you?  At least in your head.  I know I did when I typed it!  The classic Oreo song is embedded in my brain, and probably the brain of most red-blooded Americans.

So I’m on a diet you say.  Can’t eat Oreo cookies you say?!?  I tell you that’s rubbish, all rubbish! 

As a dieter, you can tend to start to feel as though you are in a food prison of sorts.  We’ve all been there.  You get into a diet plan, read all the materials, and they insist that you absolutely cannot eat sugar, fat, carbs, for fear of certain death, or a far worse fate…lack of weight loss.  While I agree that moderation of the things mentioned above is crucial for any weight loss, I take serious issue with the diets that restrict you to the point where you can’t even feel like a “normal person” when you sit down to eat something.

So we all know my goal while on this journey has been to try to debunk food myths, break down the foods that are healthy and great, and the ones that are good for you, but not so good TO you *evil eye to Kashi cereal box*.  I selflessly took on the world of reduced fat cookies this week, and put my bets on Reduced Fat Oreos.Studying the label, I will warn people once again that just because an item totes the “low or reduced fat” logo, doesn’t mean that it’s going to be much better for you, or that it’s actually going to be less calories, or Weight Watcher Points in my case.  For example, there is the same amount of sugar and carbs in the reduced fat Oreos, in fact slightly more, than there is in a regular Oreo cookie.  The fat is indeed lowered, from 7g for 3 cookies down to 4.5g for 3 cookies. 

So I got to crunching the numbers.  For those of you who follow Weight Watchers, this is a plus, you save one point, eating 3 reduced fat Oreos is 4 points plus value, while 3 regular Oreos comes in at 5 points.  When you are counting, every point can count.  But then came the important part, did they TASTE like an Oreo?  I mean, I’ll burn that extra point if it’s going to give me the proper taste and texture.

So bite I did…dunk I did…and I’m pleased to say that I don’t think I could have told you a reduced fat Oreo from a real Oreo in a blind taste test.  In fact they were so good my hubby suggested that “Maybe they just label them reduced fat, and they’re really not.”  I pray that the good people of Nabisco aren’t doing that…but I’d strongly recommend the reduced fat Oreos.

So there I sat, with my cookies and my glass of skim milk, feeling something like a little kid who didn’t have to think about calories.  I thought about them when I wanted that 2nd helping of cookies….lol…but I resisted, and felt much better knowing I’d have some there for tomorrow!  😉

Chesty Rating: 4.5  (only because it’s not a HUGE reduction in calories or sugar)