Week 2 Weigh In: 3 Lbs Down Amid Thundersnow

I'm down 3 lbs this week. I'm happy with that number, especially considering it was a rough week between car troubles, thunderstorm issues, and feeling under the weather (pun not intended). I was careful about the amount/calories of food I ate this week, but not so conscientious about what I was eating. Calories - Acceptable. Type of Food - Could be better. Let's put it this way... I ate a good share of grilled chicken, fish and veges this week. Really cut out all snacking and sugar/random carbs.  However, I also may have had some chicken parm with spaghetti twice, a couple slices of pizza, and a small slice of celebratory cake (see below). It was all in moderation though so I guess it just goes to show that yep, it's all about the calories, at least where the weight loss is concerned. That being said, I will monitor the health level of my foods more and more in the next week or so. I gave myself a pass this week because of the various unforeseen minor chaos factors. This week was basically a big wash with the '30 by 30'. Haven't even cracked open Twilight. Too bad I didn't put 'Watch an Entire Season of 24' on my list. That I did. 


Week 2: -3 lbs. Total: -4.6 lbs. To Go: 45.4 lbs.

Mmmm... Cake!

The week I discovered Netflix & Blu-ray

Let's start with the bad and good of this week's '30 by 30' before we get to the titled business...

THE BAD: Weight loss (a day later than promised, sorry). I lost 1.6 lbs this week. BAD. No surprise because I got a bit off track. I wrote down everything I ate this week and when I went back and looked at it, I was like, ugh, really, 3 Clif bars in one day? Bad Manda! Usually during Week 1 of a diet (esp w/ major carb reduction) I'll be down 5 lbs. That 1.6 could easily be strictly water (or, more likely in my case, diet coke). At least I was down and not up, even if that's a trivial loss.

THE GOOD: I've teamed up with my cousin Mara (Opera Singer/Professor at NYU) and my Aunt Jackie (Pharmacist in Kansas) on a weight loss plan. Yep, this thing has gone national!  Basically they're doing the leg work and I'm following their awesome plan. Mostly diet related, a little exercise related. Got lots of great food ideas already from them and I'm ready to go (again). We're officially starting re-starting the diet this Monday (1st day of Mara's NYU semester). Their initial plan was to do a 28-day total body cleanse (I think it was similar to Oprah's 21-day Vegan Cleanse) then start Weight Watchers. I'm still waiting on details of the cleanse. I'm not thrilled about the idea of going Vegan (I love love love fish and chicken as protein) but I'd be willing to try it. Mara is aiming to meet her goal (she has lots less to lose than me) by the time her new Opera debuts in April. That should (hopefully) really help me stay on track the next couple months. We'll see, I'll keep ya posted.

As far as this week's '30 by 30' agenda item... I've decided on Twilight. I borrowed the book from my friend Terry at breakfast club this morning. (More on breakfast club in a future post, for those who don't know about my Saturday morning tradition). Terry opened her sealed 3-book set in order to give me the book so now even if I am kinda "blah" about reading it I'm sorta guilted into doing so ;-) Kidding, mostly! My mom and sister both warned that it'll take a good 50+ pages to get into. I'm hoping I have enough willpower to make it through that first 50 and enough willpower to tear me away from the TV, which, conveniently brings me to the root of the title...

This has nothing to do with the '30 by 30' other than that it may derail some of my plans. It all started with Redbox. I love Redbox! $1 for a brand new movie is fantastic. However, when you rent the movie over the weekend, then forget about it for the week, and before you know it you've spent $7 on the dumbest movies in recent history, Redbox isn't so awesome.  So I decided to sign up for the Netflix 30-Day Trial. I understand I'm really late to the party here, but I didn't realize that the instant streaming option streams HD quickly and it actually looks like HD. I thought since it looks just blah on my 4 year old Mac it would look just blah on my 50" Panasonic plasma.  After a little internet/friend research on streaming devices (I don't own a video game systems made after 1990) I decided to invest/ test out this whole instant streaming business on a Blu-ray player. $95 bucks later (HDMI cable included, I LOVE Costco) and... OH MY GAWD! I'm fairly certain that since I brought this baby home on Thursday either me or my sister (who lives with me) have been parked in front of the TV at all times. First I watched Amadeus. Now we're onto Season 2 of Dexter and Season 1 of 24 (which I've never seen). The videos load so quickly! And they're all just on the screen waiting for me to play. Knock on wood I haven't even noticed any jumps from internet connectivity. [Insert Shameless Employer Plug Here] Thanks Xfinity super fast connection! It's amazing. Yes, I realize this technology has been around for a while, but I'm giddy excited nonetheless at my new-to-me discovery. A few friends have mentioned that once you go through the instant catalog you run out of stuff, but for someone who barely watches TV (other than sports and news) it's gonna take a while for me to get bored. 

Now if only I can tear myself away from this Blu-ray and start Twilight...

The Diet - Overview

After much consideration about which diet (or type of diet) to take up to drop 50 lbs... I'm going with the Weight Watchers point system and portion control.  I've attempted a myriad of diets over the past many years. In 2009 I lost 30 lbs in 2 months on Medifast. That was manageable and I felt great, but it wasn't realistic in the long term (at least for me). And of course I gained it all back. I know a bunch of folks who have done Weight Watchers and had tremendous long term success, which is important to me.  Also, it's ideal for someone constantly busy and on the go. Lots of options and if Jennifer Hudson can do it, so can I.

The diet begins tomorrow (Friday the 14th) morning. Right now I'm going off an "old" points book online. This weekend I'm going to figure out how to get the new Points Plus guide and carry it will me at all times. I'm not doing the meetings, weigh ins, etc at WW centers. It's just not practical with my schedule. In lieu of being held accountable by official meetings & weigh-ins, I'm going to do a blog post every Friday with my total weight loss for that week and any notes, tips, thoughts, complaints, etc etc. I chose Friday as a weigh in day because I feel like it's the weekend where I may be a little looser with my diet, so Friday will prob be my lowest weight of the week, thus obviously a great choice.

I have 357 days to get down 50 lbs. Sounds reasonable to me!