We are still here....

Day 18...wow we kinda lost 6 days... 

 While we may not have been posting, we have been thinking, evaluating, strategizing.  

In our evaluation of our carefully laid plan, 

we found a flaw.  

And, before you write us off as losers, 

we are serious about this flaw.

The flaw in our plan was...

 lack of food.

Now I know ALL dieters feel this way, but I'm being completely serious.

I believe we went from grazing carte blanche, to eating like a bird, a really, really small bird, plus exercising more than we had in months and our bodies went into starvation mode.

  The Orange Kitteh did lose like four pounds over the two weeks.  

I lost nothing. 

 Zip. 

Nada.

BUT!

When we cut back on exercising and added more calories back into the formula (which may or may not have come from Cheetos) I lost 3 pounds!

I seriously think we did too much, too soon!

We were hard core and the results were not there.

It was sooo discouraging.

So, our new strategy is to step up the calories, continue the exercise and chill a bit.  The Kittehs have been known to obsess a bit, and this challenge was no different.

Roni's post today was comforting and reassuring.  If you did not see it, you might want to check it out.  I agree that while weight loss is a goal, it really is the change in lifestyle that is the prize!

Points Vs. Calories

When we began the 90 Day Challenge,  we were not sure how we wanted to track.  We are prone to fixating on numbers, numbers on the scale, points, calories, miles walked/ran, minutes exercised, etc.  We liked WWs because there is such a thing as zero points.   How guilt free is zero points?  God bless the zero points. However, there are those foods that are calorie friendly but points deadly.  The example that immediately comes to mind is a slice of a medium Pizza Hut pepperoni pan pizza.

*nom*

A single slice is 12 points, or 41% of the standard 29 daily points on Points Plus, yet it's only 290 calories, or 22% of a 1,300 calorie daily diet.  

At the end of each day we have found that we ran out of points before we ran out of calories.  Looking back over almost 2 weeks of data, I realized  that I  never consumed more than 1,200 calories in a day. That was never my intention, especially when trying to get back into running, but I was trying to stay within my daily points 29 points.

Has anyone else done a comparison between points and calories?  

What did you discover?  

We're Still Here! Days 5-9

Sorry for the lapse in posting.

The beginning of the month is extremely busy for the kittehs.


The Kitteh's are still working the diet, or is it that the diet is working us?

It's hard to tell these days.

*sigh*

We have been totally committed to the diet. We are very proud of our accomplishments. For a tad over a week we have tracked ALL our food. Everything. Every little crumb, morsel, bite, taste, E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. And let me tell you, it's been little crumbs, morsels and bites.

We have diligently drank our 64 oz of water each day.

The side effect of which has been a constant trail to the restroom.

We have faithfully exercised 3 hours/week.

Now, I know that doesn't sound like much, but let me tell you, it HURT. Either the 3 years since we first joined WW has been very unkind to us, or we totally let ourselves go. Because there has been nothing easy about the exercise we have been doing. Before, the exercise came easy. We would walk for miles and feel invigorated afterwards! Now, walking seems to have been a challenge that we were not anticipating!

After 9 and now, almost 10 days into our challenge, we cannot honestly decide if we prefer counting calories or WW points. We are doing both and we find that it is intriguing to see how we end the day calorie and point wise.

We don't really manage our calories/points wisely. We tend to skimp during the day, to save the calories/points for dinner, only to find that we have more than enough at dinner time. We end up with points to spare, and yet, we cannot seem to make ourselves splurge a little bit during the day to stave off the hunger.

*fail*

We have also found that we do not function well mentally on a diet.

We have a hard time focusing on anything but the growling of our bellehs.

In conclusion, we have learned that no matter how healthy, how filling, how tasty the food is, our brains still crave cheezburgers.

Today is day 10...80 more to go.

Day 4 Recap

It feels like we have been on this diet for at least a month, but alas, we have just concluded day 4. The one thing we have both noticed is that around 5 pm  we are starving. 

 Starving?

Starving just doesn't paint the right image.

At about 5 pm, we become ravenous.

I am not sure what we need to change to stop this.  I mean I know what could stop this, trust me.  A big ol' bag of cheezie poofs, a Kit-Kat, a cheeseburger, all these things would stop it!  What I mean is, what type of food are we eating wrong that makes 5 pm so unbearable?  

Point wise / calorie wise we seem to be eating correctly.  However, our WW leader always preached, "If you are getting hungry, you are doing it wrong." 

Actual Photo of our WW leader.  She was a peach!

She also loved to say, "You need to be able to tell the difference between wanting to eat and really being hungry.  When you would eat cold green beans out of the can, then you are hungry!"

I swear, come 5 pm, I could eat a can of green beans cold.  And I mean can and all.  I am ashamed that some one actually caught me on tape at a bit past 5.  Click here.

We are going to have to make some kind of adjustment if we are going to be successful.  Suggestions?

Healthy living is killing me...

So we started this 90 days till Christmas weight loss challenge in the hopes to be healthier, and well, thinner.

Little did I know it could potentially kill me.

See, I am out of shape, horribly. Since we challenged ourselves to do three hours of exercise a week, I picked the path of least resistance and chose to walk. Sunday I walked for almost four miles. It took me an hour. I thought I was going to DIE at the end of that hour. The next day, I was sore, exhausted and not sure I could manage two more hours of exercise by the end of the week.

That night, going out side to check on my adopted stray kitteh, I tripped in the dark, causing bruises, scrapes and punctures.

I blame this on the fact that my muscles were so fatigued that I could not correct my trip in time to save myself. My husband was amazed at my lack of coordination. I got no sympathy. His suspicion that he had married a true clutz had been confirmed.

Then last night, well...it was pretty ugly. I have committed to taking vitamins to help things along on my "healthiness journey." I have always been able to take a large amount of pills with one gulp.

Always.

Until last night.

One of my pills got stuck in some mysterious little "pocket" next to my tonsil. It was stuck, and there was absolutely NO way I could dislodge it. I drank water. I hacked like any good kitteh with a hairball would. I ate bread, because my mom always told me that is what you do when you get a pill stuck.

I started gagging. The pill was lodged and unmoving, but it was beginning to dissolve with the massive amounts of water that I was using to flush it out. So now, my tonsil is burning because that little oblong vitamin D tablet had somehow turned into sulfuric ACID, and was beginning to eat my tonsil.

My eyes were watering, my nose was running, I was gagging and hacking and looking pretty miserable, when I look up and there stands my husband with a total look of fear on his face. "WTF?" was the question he asked. I hacked, and said "I hab a pill stuck," while frantically pointing to my throat.

He turns to get MORE water and mercifully, I gag/hack and POP, it comes up. *sigh*

I repulsed myself, looking at the partially dissolved evil pill laying in the sink. Throat burning, I looked down and was amazed that it wasn't bigger....It felt like a walnut had been lodged in there.

Today, tonsil is swollen, and I can't swallow without pain. I feel stupid. How could I have almost killed myself in the process of "getting healthy?"

SO, that is just my first three days on the diet, on this journey to be "healthy". I'm not so sure I can make it 87 more days...

End of Day 2, not so pretty, akshually.

How was supper?

This was me at supper.

 I had made stew in the crock pot.  When I got home, I was ravenous.  Bowls could not hit the table fast enough.  I did everything the diet books say not to.  I horked.  The stew was volcanic.  I did not care.  I am not sure I tasted any part of it.  I was starving.  It was so hot you had to chew fast and swallow before it singed your mouth.  

It was a feeding frenzy.  

It was not pretty.

My family was scared.

But, it was within points, within calories and it quieted the beast in my belleh!

Now, in retrospect, I wish I had calmly placed the stew in a bowl,  let it cool while I filled a glass of water, enjoyed the aroma and taste as I chewed each bite 26 times.  I wish I had done that.  I wish it had actually touched my tongue.  If I had done that, I might have an actual memory of the meal.

Day 2

Well, I think all the holiday shoppers can calm down.  Christmas does not appear to be around the corner, at least not from where I sit on day 2 of the 90  Day Challenge to Christmas!  Of course it doesn't help that our fall weather has been not so different than our summer weather.  Yesterday and today we are in the 100s. 

But,  *inhales positive thoughts, exhales negative tthoughts* we survived yesterday fairly unscathed.  

Things we noted were...

Fruits & veggies (Even with the WW Power Food Symbol)  are not filling.

~Eggs are a Godsend.  They are low cal and filling.

~Hunger is just going to be a part of this challenge.   Hopefully, Hunger Monster's stay will be a short visit. He just can't be the guest who over stays their welcome!

~ It does not take long to become out of shape.  An hour walk is exhausting.  

~ Eating healthy makes me tired.  It must be all the food chopping :)

~If I didn't have someone to do this challenge with, there is no way I'd be successful.