Stress Balloon Ready To Pop

I am sweating this week as I prepare to stop on the scale Tuesday (and I may peak at it on Monday).  I feel into the trap of “this is so hard and exhausting” thus going way over my points on both Tuesday and Thursday.  But it was more than that.  I just felt exhausted this week.  It is like I need a break from counting point, preparing my meals, eating veggies, and doing all the right things only to feel like the scale isn’t showing my hard work.

That isn’t fully true.  Of course the scale is showing my hard work and although I maintained last week, I am down 10 pounds from last year and I am (was…we will see on Tuesday) for the month.  I am working hard on gaining perspective incase the scale is really bad this week.  I hope I am making this all out to be worse that it really is.

I have been working hard on my November Apple Watch Activity Challenge and doing so, I have been exercising a lot.  Since it doesn’t really feel like that is the positive stress outlet I am searching for, I’ve been turning to alcohol and more social situations. 

 

While not the best coping strategy, sometimes it just feels like life is too short to micro-manage my food/drink intake.  However, I wouldn’t be where I am if I didn’t micro-manage just a bit.

I’ll be spending a few days in Vegas this week before the mad rush of evaluation season at work begins.  I really, really, really am so excited for some time off and stress release and most importantly time with my husband.  Oh, and I’m super stoked about all the yummy food and alcohol.  I mean, let’s be real here.  It’s VEGAS!

Until Tuesday, I’ve got to keep myself from going into Vacation Mode.  I have my third WW Workshop on Monday and I’m starting to feel my new groove.  It is also less busy now that I am not working as a Guide on Friday and a Coach on Monday.  I really hope to settle into this new routine.

Weekly WI: Maintain

I weighed the same weight this week as I did last week.

A maintain is always good.  Of course, I had wanted a loss and continue to work the new Personal Points Program making sure I get in some of those non-starchy vegetables.  Since I love potatoes and I love Thanksgiving, I think I’ll give it one more week and then change my ZeroPoint food options to include brown rice and whole wheat pasta again.  At least for a few weeks.  We will be in Vegas next week so that will throw me off a bit and probably result in some weight gain.  I might even skip the scale that first week of December.

This week is the last week for a weigh-in of November and as of right now, I am down four pounds since October.  I am also down about 10 pounds from this time last year.  I’m going to keep working my program and getting in my activity as I also near the end of month goal for my Apple Activity Watch Challenge.  

Last night was the annual pie pick-up put on by my realtor team.  Each year we get a pie before Thanksgiving as a thank you for our continued business and referrals.  I love my realtor and her team so I really enjoy getting to see them.  This was an outdoor event so not as fun as pre-COVID when we could gather at a restaurant/bar and really spend time catching up.  When you are with Christina and Company, you are clients for life and therefore you get #pie4life.

I met Rebecca for pizza, salad, and drinks at the local Albertson’s, which also had a food court and a bar/restaurant.  I enjoyed two slices of pizza, a whole bag of pre-packaged Caesar salad (veggie points baby!) and a spiced chai mule.  The drink was really delicious.

I was still feeing festive and probably relieving stress in the wrong with with alcohol…but I took myself to Matador to try a couple more margaritas from their menu.  This week I tried the Bartender’s and the Chile Mango.  I preferred the Bartender’s Margarita as it was less sweet and you could really taste the margarita.  Both were really good.

I was not hungry and I don’t particularly like their food, just their margaritas (and chips and black bean dip).  I sat at the bar, it was a packed house, and told the bartender I didn’t need chips or a menu that I was just having some drinks.  This worked well in eliminating the mindless chip eating and cutting down on points.  Believe me, the margaritas are enough points all by themselves!  

Tis The Season but I do need to be careful of all my social outings as that is one reason I struggle with my weight.  It is a constant mental battle between, “live life and have fun” and “you now have an employee weigh-in once a month.”  Somewhere, I will live life in-between as that is a huge part of this journey.  When we get to our goal weight, it is easy to think you have to keep going and you have to keep losing.  Eventually, you have to just live!

This Week In Social Events

Good Morning and Happy Saturday.

My weigh-in last week was small and my vacation weight has finally dropped off.  That sure is a good feeling.  I also had a really successful week with tracking, activity, and sleep.  With my sleep feeling all over the place sometimes, I am shocked I was in the healthy sleep zone of 7-9 hours a night.  This has already been so much different.

I had some social events on the calendar and after working so many hours between the two jobs the last several weeks, it was so nice to relax and enjoy come adult beverages and company with my friends.

My WW Buddy Wanda, her husband, and I met at Matador in The Village.  I’ve been dying to go back and have some of their margaritas especially since we enjoyed that delicious smoky margarita on the Alaska Cruise.  I was not quite sure what I would order to eat since their food is always so spicy.  Since I knew I’d be spending 23 points in margaritas, I went for a taco salad with was very delicious.  I tried the smoky margarita (so delicious) and the cucumber jalapeño (so spicy).  I actually didn’t finish the cucumber jalapeño margarita and saved myself some points in the process.  2 margaritas is 23 points and 1 1/2 margarita is 17 points.  Win:Win.

I still want to try the mango Chile and maybe the Jalisco mule too.  So I will be back again soon.

On Thursday, Phoenix, Stacey, Kenyon, and I met up for a Boise Beer Buddies meet-up event at Good Apple Taphouse.  There was a brewery from Mountain Home featured with four of their beers on tap which meant I had to try a flight!  The fifth beer is one I chose from Coeur d’Alene.  

All were just okay and none were spectacular.  I didn’t end up finishing my flight which meant points savings once again.  There was a food truck on site with the most delicious pizza ever!  Kenyon and I shared a pizza and it took all the willpower I had not to eat a whole second pizza just by myself.  OMG!  Delicious.  It was a high point day and I used almost all my weekly points.

It is back to work for the week and my second WW Workshop on Monday.  I will also be conducting my first orientation afterwards and the WW Franchise manager will be in town shadowing at my workshop. I am nervous and feeing a little unprepared!  I am planning to look things over the next few days.

Transition From Guide To Coach

When I joined WW as an employee, I’ve always had my sights set being a WW Coach.  I honestly was thrilled to finally be offered a job working with this amazing company that I really didn’t care if it was as a Guide (the person that does the check-in and administrative tasks) or a Coach (the person who leads the Workshops).  Typically, you will be hired as a Guide so you can learn the ropes and after about six months, you are eligible to go through Coach training and start leading weekly Workshops.  With the COVID shut-down and trying to ramp up the in-person Workshops again, I had the opportunity to fast track to a WW Coach and two weeks ago, I was invited to train as a Coach.  

Boy has it been a whirlwind of a few weeks.  I found out the Coach training would be lumped into the same week as the new Personal Points Program launch AND a week that I was scheduled to work a 6-day work week at my regular job.  On top of that, I was invited to attend the Monday Morning Workshop for the new program launch and an opportunity to meet the WW members as I would be taking over as the new Coach the following week.  Oh yea, that was also the same week I was scheduled to work the graveyard shift at my regular job.  WOAH.  It has been a busy two weeks with a lot of creative shuffling, an abundance of espresso, and trying hard to keep my head above water.

 

Coach training went great, and I learned a ton.  The days were long between training and working my regular shift until 2am.  I earned a lot of activity points too!

In the end, I made it through.  I officially lead my first WW Workshop this morning (after I got off work at 6am from my 10-hour shift).  It was a success although I had to rush through the technique of the week due to lots of questions and really good discussions.  I really love the Monday Morning WW members in Nampa, and I am looking forward to many more weeks to come.  There is still a lot to learn, and I am hoping in the next few weeks things start to settle back down and I can find my groove.  I am currently helping out at the Friday Morning Workshop in Meridian until the new Guide can get some experience back under her belt.  This is just one more opportunity that I can learn and grow with this company.

Re-Building The Activity Habit

Good Morning…Afternoon.  I am working the graveyard shift this week so my days are all mixed up, but when has that ever been different?

I have been on the go and moving at 1000 miles a minute.  I can’t wait to fill you in on the last couple of week, well the last 8-ish weeks to be exact as everything has been happening so fast with WW and learning the ropes at my part-time job.  I absolutely love the members and I am so happy for this opportunity.

I’ve been working this month on re-building my daily activity habit and have been finding success along the way.  Some days are tough to squeeze in some exercise minutes but having a desk bike elliptical at both home and work has helped a ton.  As long as I am sitting, I might as well be moving those feet.  We area also having some beautiful last of Fall weather this week so I plan to get out for a walk today.  Last week I earned a 7-day workout activity.

There was also a special Veteran's Day award on Thursday.  

This daily habit is also helping me achieve my November Activity Watch Challenge award.  I am out to complete another full year of reaching my monthly goals.  

I've Been Hiding A Secret

I’ve got a secret that I am finally able to share…

 

WW has rolled out a brand-new program update called Personal Points.  As a new employee to WW, I have had the privilege of testing out the new program through the beta app and overall, I really like the changes.

 

WW Personal Points officially rolled out in the US November 8^th.  The program rolled out in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia on October 25^th.  For those that follow Pound Dropper, she shared the ins/outs of the new program on her website a few weeks ago.  

You can read about it here ß

 

WW Personal Points is a completely customizable plan and instead of fitting your life into a WW plan, the WW plan fits into YOUR life.  Through the assessment questioner, members can choose the foods they love to eat generating a personalized daily and weekly points budget.  On top of that, you can add points to your daily points allowance by eating non-starchy vegetables (1 cup servings), drinking water (60 oz a day), and being active.  The best part is you can earn unlimited daily points logging for veggies.  Activity points are also unlimited and added to your weekly points budget.  Water is capped though so you are only able to earn one point a day.  WW has also made it easy to track your non-starchy veggies which means you don’t have to track your zero-point foods if you don’t want to.  It could not be easier.

 

Personal Points follows the most update-to-date science and calculates points using unsaturated fat and fiber, which decrease the points value, and added sugar, which increase the points value.  I have found that the biggest change to points in the foods I’ve been eating is that sneaky hidden added sugar.

 

How is it going?  The hardest change for me was moving away from the Purple Plan and all the zero-point foods that I had come to enjoy while eating them every day.  I rarely turned to a salad anymore as the complex carbs were keeping fuller longer.  The WW Personal Points program feels a lot like the Blue Plan which was also known as the Freestyle Plan.  It encompasses zero-point fruits and non-starchy vegetables as well as many of the zero-point foods from the Blue Plan such as chicken, beans, and fat free yogurt.  Where the new plan deviates from the prior MyWW+ program depends on what other foods you select during your assessment.  I was only able to choose two from the list as my personalized zero-point foods of the many that used to be incorporated as part of the Purple Plan.

 

What this meant for me is that I was only able to choose two of my beloved complex carbs: oatmeal, popcorn, corn, potatoes, brown rice, and whole wheat pasta.  Talk about a very difficult decision as I was eating all these foods daily.  It continues to be a hard decision for me and during these last seven weeks since the new program was available to employees.  I have re-taken the assessment a few times changing up my decisions.

 

The other struggle was despite no longer being on the Purple Plan with all the zero-point foods available to me, my daily points budget is now 17 giving me only one more point that I used to have on the Purple Plan.  When I returned from our Alaska Cruise, I really struggled with how to eat on such few points.  Eventually I found my stride again and let me tell you…I’ve eaten a lot of non-starchy veggies over these last seven weeks.  It is one way I can add to my daily points budget.

 

I also didn’t drop a lot of weight these past seven weeks.  My starting weight was 196.8 and my weight today is 194.2. 

Between vacation, a head cold, a sinus infection, and birthday social outings/meals, I didn’t have a solid seven weeks to commit to the new plan 100%.  I had just found my stride before vacation and then feel like I’ve also found my stride again over the last week and a half.  I am looking forward to the next two months where I hope to end the year closer to 190.

 

If you are interested in learning more about Personal Points, pop into a WW Studio near you.  We would love to see you.

 

Busy, Busy, Busy & Fancy New Lights

Good Afternoon.  It’s Time Change Day!  It is crazy to think at 2am the clocks roll back since it already feels darks so early.  I’ll be at work tonight until 3am, which I am now calling “the second 2am.”  I have been trying to shave some time off my gals working graveyard tonight so they don’t end up working a 13 hour day!  We have been working an abundance of overtime and it looks as though there is a tiny light at the end of the tunnel ahead.  I just need to power through these next two weeks and hopefully it will settle down again.  I have been so busy with my regular job, working part-time with WW, overtime at my regular job, and training at my part-time job.  Whew.  It has been a lot.  I found a groove but will have another shake up and then should get back into a groove again.

On Wednesday, our permanent lights were installed on the house.  OMG, I am in love!  I spent Wednesday and Thursday playing with color combinations and I am stoked with my purchase.

These are gemstone lights that reside within a track that attaches to the awnings of your roof.  They blend in with the paint color and when they aren’t turned on you don’t even notice them.

The two guys that did our install were really fun.  They have recently started up this business and it has already taken off.  They completed nine measurements in one day earlier in the week.  Thankfully our weather improved and the rain stopped in time for the install so they weren’t completely miserable.  It was an all-day install and they didn’t complete it until after sunset.

I had to work overtime on Wednesday night so it as killing me to not be at home.  I ended up getting off early and spent a good chunk of the evening turning on different light combos.

The light have all sorts of special effects too which just amps up the fun!  It is Game Day for Boise State University so I’ve been creating various Bronco color combinations.  

There are several folders with holiday light combos available for download.  You can also make your own color combinations using the color wheel and slides.

This is just too much fun!  If you are interested in some custom lights, give Vivid Lights LLC a call and make sure you ask for Zack and Alex.  

Weekly WI: Caution - Slowing Ahead

Losing the vacation weight gain has been painfully slow.  The positive part is that I feel good and each week I even feel lighter.  The scale is not reflecting it though and here we sit still in the 197s for another week.

It is going down and I plan to give it my all these next two weeks to see if I can finally make some headway on the vacation gain.  When my weight spiked at the end of July, it took a few weeks to drop off and so that is what I am hoping will happen again.

I am working to get back into a regular exercise routine too.  With my October goal being completed so early in the month and feeling under the weather for two weeks, I didn’t get in much movement in October.  My November Apple Watch Activity Goal is to burn 23,000 calories, an average of 766 a day.  My usual daily burn is 500 calories and on a day that I exercise or when I am mindful of extra movement, I can easily hit 700+ so I am trying not to stress it and just move.  

I am on about finish a six-day work week followed by another six-day stretch.  I also will be training for WW Coach with the franchise owner.  I am really excited and will be juggling some interesting sleep/work scheduling.  It will be nice when mid-November comes and I’m back to a somewhat normal.