Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The Randomness of Panera Bread

I think Abby and I are finally back into our groove. We started a bunch of activities in the fall - Mom's Morning Out, gymnastics switched days, and I'm taking a class once a week so Anna comes to spend the morning with her - and I think it just took awhile for everything to seem normal. Abby seems happier this week than she has seemed in awhile - all smiles, laughter, cuddling, make-believe, etc. I'm glad of it!

I was dreading Mom's Morning Out but it has turned out well. I was afraid she'd hate it, I'd have to leave her crying, etc, but she has adjusted just perfectly and loves it now - not that she ever didn't like it, but she was kind of ambivalent about it the first few weeks. While I do miss her, I do enjoy the chance to sit at Panera Bread and write, read, blog, etc. I don't know why I don't do it more often - there is just something about a coffeehouse that is soul-soothing! :)

I'm still marathon-ing away at Weight Watchers. Because I didn't have such a great week last week weight-loss-wise (I still followed the plan well, but hormones got in the way of a big loss) I'm hoping to make it up this week to give me a mental "boost." I'm attacking it in two ways: first, I'm trying to eat less processed foods this week - the last two weeks I really relied pretty heavily on my frozen Lean Cuisine and Smart Ones meals because they were already portioned and I was nervous about eating some of the stuff the family was eating. I stayed within points, but I'm pretty sure the extra sodium didn't help at all. Second, I've deemed myself ready to start on the other aspect of my life I want to health-ify: exercise! I'm usually an all-or-nothing kind of person, so in the past I saw diet and exercise as one. If I missed a day of walking, then I'd "blown it" and (in my old thinking) I'd blown my "diet" as well. So when I started WW I kind of made the conscious decision that to me, diet and exercise were going to be two separate entities. Now that I've gotten the diet to feel comfortable, I'm ready to take on something new. Nothing exciting - I'm just powerwalking right now. Normally I do laps up and down our driveway until I accumulate 2 miles, but last night Dad agreed to go walking with me practically in the dark (and I'm so glad he did, cuz we found a SNAKE and I totally freaked out, even though it was already dead. Eeh!). We did almost 2 miles in the night air and it was lovely.

I've decided to start off with committing to thirty minutes of exercise three times a week. I know it doesn't sound like much, but I'd rather start small and exceed my goal than set a goal I don't make and then get discouraged over. It's all a mind-game, apparently. :)

Even though I was a bit disappointed after my last weigh-in (even though, seriously, I'm positive it's hormones and mostly water-weight), I'm seeing small positive signs this week. Today I couldn't get my bra to fit right and finally had the "bright idea" of trying it on the smallest hook - and lo and behold, suddenly it fit right again! That was a nice boost. :) I bought a hoodie last week in a size smaller than I usually buy and it's still fairly loose. I went to get dressed for class on Tuesday and a particular shirt came to mind, and I thought, "Oh, I haven't worn that in so long, it's gotten so snug, I feel so fat in it..." and something made me pull it out anyway and it fit perfectly, looked great. Last week I started wearing my belt one notch tighter so that my skirts wouldn't fall down (this may be the one aspect of losing that I'm not so sure about - do you know how HARD it is to find a nice denim skirt? Couldn't this part wait just a little longer?!?).

Anyway, they're little changes, and I don't think anyone but myself can really see a difference yet, but it's kind of exciting to me. The only bad part is that I'm kind of leery on buying clothes right now, because nothing seems to really fit right (I guess I'm between sizes now?) and I desperately need some cold weather clothes. And of course I'd love to go shopping for fall clothes that aren't so desperately needed, but I'm kind of loathe to put money into clothes right now. I'm thinking I'm going to satisfy my fall shopping itch by letting myself get a size-less item, like a purse (already have my eye on one!) every time I hit a new goal. :)

Btw, and this is too good not to share, I have discovered the Weight Watchers equivalent of a "poor man's latte." I miss my lattes. I am trying to talk myself back into my green tea habit, because that's got to be so much better, but right now nothing will satisfy me like a good cup of coffee. But my favorite latte runs like 6-8 points normally, and even with skim, no whip, and half the syrup, still costs me 4 points, which is just too much for anything but a once-in-a-long-while treat. So we were in another coffeeshop yesterday, and I saw that they had SUGARFREE (read: diet!) syrup, so I ordered a cup of black coffee with a shot of SF caramel, then added Sweet and Low and a little half-and-half, and I swear it tasted just like my fav latte. Got home, added it up, and the only thing that cost me points was the half-and-half. Total points? 2! Yay me. :)

No comments: