Playing Catch Up

It has been a heck of a week and I didn’t mean to be gone for so long.  Sorry for the delay.

Thanksgiving was really great.  I hosted and we had 14 people.  I had bought some open stock plates on clearance at JC Penney and we had plenty of places for people to sit.  After Black Friday sales, I’ll now have enough cutlery and glasses too.  It is funny when you host for a size that big.  I’m used to using paper plates but wanted to upgrade.  The only bummer was there the lack of leftover turkey after.  I love leftover turkey.

My coworker/friend Sierra went Black Friday Shopping early Friday morning.  We were surprised as to how mellow it was and the only line we saw was Cabela’s at 5am.  We heard it was pretty busy at Old Navy the night before so I’m thinking people did their shopping on Thanksgiving night.  I did some online shopping but saved my other shopping for the big Black Friday day.  Of course I had nothing I needed to buy but still found stuff to spend money on.  The mall was also quite busy.

I am ready for this work week to be over.  I’m not sure what is going on with me this week but I am 100% exhausted.  I have no energy or motivation for anything.  Last night I was going to meet Kenyon at Costco and then we were going to grab dinner but I just didn’t have the energy.  Since the time change I’ve been falling asleep on the couch watching TV almost every night.  I hope I can get caught up on rest on my three days off and get back to feeling normal again.

Making A Plan For The Week Ahead

My home scale had me squeaking by with a maintain this week.  I’ll tell ya, I’m super happy about that.  This has been a week!  I’m trying to get ahead of this next week by making a plan and I’ll be working on staying focused and trying harder than I did last week.

Here is what my week looks like and my plan.  I’ve still got to plan some meals around all this chaos:

Tonight I’m going to hit up a different WW meeting since it is the best time this week to get to a meeting.  We are in the middle of earning our Thanksgiving charm for meeting attendance and this week you get a bonus for attending during Thanksgiving Week.  So, I don’t want to miss it.  I don’t think I’ll actually WI since it is a night meeting and I checked in on my home scale.  But, if I change my mind, I’ll have to remember any gain is mostly likely just from what I’ve eaten/drank during my day today.  That is one benefit to morning WIs.  You can usually get away with starving yourself before your meeting and thus playing into the scale game of “how low can you go.”

Tuesday I work overtime from 6am-10am and I have a social even at 4pm.  I am planning to clean the house in preparation for Thanksgiving guests on Tuesday so it is completed and out of the way.  I think this will be my only activity for the day unless I do a workout tape at home as the gym classes don’t fit into my schedule.

Wednesday I am going to try to at my bank bright and early to try and wrangle a better interest rate on the Black Wednesday interest rate “sale.”  It looks like all the good deal are only for 36 months but that I can also shave 1% off any other rate I quality for.  It feels like it is worth the gamble even though I’ve got to get up early.  I have a procedure at my lady-doctor’s office and then I’m planning the rest of the day to rest just in case I don’t feel good after my procedure.  If I’m feeling up to it, I’ll do my grocery shopping and some food prep for Thanksgiving.  But, this is why I want to do my house cleaning on Tuesday.  If I don’t end up at Black Wednesday very long, I’ll hit the gym and get in a workout before my appointment.

Thursday is Thanksgiving.  Kenyon and I are off work (yeah) and I will be cooking some side dishes for our 2pm mealtime.  I love the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade and I’m going to plan to do a workout DVD at home before the festivities begin.

Friday I don’t work until 10am so I’m meeting a coworker to do some Black Friday shopping.  I don’t really have anything to buy but going out in it is fun.  There won’t be any time for formal activity so I had better get some steps in while we shop.

Saturday – Monday is my regular workday.  I’ve been letting my activity slide on the weekends so I’ll see what I can do to re-motivate myself.  Most days I meet my activity goal just through my workday since I am training and I’m up out of my chair a lot.  But, since I’ve also not been as active during the week, I should hold myself accountable better.  Monday I’ll plan to hit up a class at the gym.

Whew.  It is going to be a whirlwind of a week and I’m sure it will fly by!  I only get a small break from training as I finish up my Phase 2 trainee and move onto a Phase 4 trainee.  I’ll be looking forward to the small break.

Weight Watchers (Possible) New Program

Have any of my WW peeps heard there are changes coming down the line to our beloved program?  It is typical for WW to do something around early December and from the rumors I’m hearing/reading, it sounds like this year is no exception. 

I saw on Instagram that the new Weight Watchers Flex Program has rolled out in the UK and it sounds like the US program will be similar but have a different name.  So far, I have some mixed feelings but I think overall should be an interesting change.

Now, I am not a WW-insider and I won’t actually know the details until I get my new meeting material.  I did jump on the WW app this morning just to see if there were any changes and so far there are not.  I should also get an email soon as I am an eTools member and I think I got word of program changes and notification of the changes to the app last time there was a major change.

So, in the meantime, I’ve been Googling “Weight Watcher Flex Plan” and “Weight Watchers Freedom Plan” (a rumor as to what the US plan might be called) just to see what comes up.  It is fun to see what is speculated much like when Apple releases a new product.

Rumors are they will be lowering the daily points plus allowance but in turn, giving us more free foods in the form of lean protein (i.e. chicken breast, canned tuna, eggs, and even beans).  So, don’t get all excited that mini fun size candy bars are now going to be zero points plus.  That will never happen!  But, if it means I can eat eggs in the morning and enjoy a nice pot of chili made with beans and not have to count them towards my DPPA, then I think I will like this new program.

The more I read up on the speculation, the more I think it is a mix of points and Simply Filling.  I have done SF in the past and it is okay, I just don’t eat a lot of fat free products so I blow through my weekly points fast.  In this case of this possible hybrid type points system that could be coming out, I can eat the foods I like but not have to blow through my extra points so fast.

I am hoping changes will roll out in the US in early December as in years past but until then, I’ve gotta wait just like everybody else.