Extreme Makeover--Me Edition Week 1

This week I started following along with Amber for her Extreme Makeover--Me Edition. It's week 1 and she's trying to get healthier and drop a few pounds which is exactly what I want to do. There are a few rules to this gig which are as follows: every Wednesday you should do a specific post on your blog in regard to Extreme Makeover--Me Edition. Update her on your progress. How did your week go? Did you struggle? How were you successful? Do you have any great tips? Along with that, feel free to answer the specific question or topic that she poses each week. After you've finished your post, view that specific post {either view your blog & click on the title of that post, or go 'edit posts' and 'view'}. Grab the url and post it into her Mr. Linky which is at the bottom of current post. If you want to follow along head on over and link up.

Here's my update. I went to Weight Watchers this morning to get weighed in. Last week was a bit of a disappointment because I did everything correctly and gained .6 lbs. So this week I buckled down even harder and it finally paid off. I lost 1.6 lbs. Whewww!! I have a renewed spring in my step which is exactly what I needed. I'm determined to drop some weight and I won't be discouraged. Not even by sick children!!

This week has been a struggle since the boys have a mysterious virus which means they're acting completely fine but have the runs. They've been up in the night. Not too much but it's that whole still wiping their bum thing that's the problem. Instead of just waiting on the potty and calling for me to come to the rescue they jump up off and get it all over the place. And I do mean all over the place. Do any of your kids have this? We're on day 8 and wondering how much longer this can last. Peyton's still recovering from her ear infection and upper respiratory infection as well and has been up a few nights yelling the house down. All of this makes for a tired week which in turn makes it harder to concentrate on eating well and exercising. It's more difficult than I had ever imagined being a Mom and trying to concentrate on yourself. I'm all about finding that balance. I had this game down pat back when I had 2 kids. Not so much after the third. Needless to say, it's been an icky week around here and I think I exercised 2-3x. So in case you were wondering if my life was all sunshine and rainbows, it isn't. :-)

Amber's question for this week is - Do you have any low calorie snacks that you'd like to share? One of my favorites is the Hostess 100 Calorie Pack Cinnamon Streusel Mini Muffins. Although they're 100 calories they have 5 grams of fiber. Weight Watchers is all about the fiber. The more fiber you have in a food, the less the points value. While most 100 calorie pack snacks are 2 points. This little gem is only 1 point. You get 3 mini muffins for 1 point. You can't beat that! Hostess also makes mini cupcakes which are delicious. The carrot cake is not good. It tasted like chemicals to me. I won't endure that even for a 1 point snack thank you very much.

Another snack that I love is the Weight Watchers Chocolate Chip Cookies and Brownies. The cookies are 1 point and the brownies are 2 points. They're both soooo yummy!! I've been doing Weight Watchers for so long now (since 1997) and pretty much know what the points value is of almost any food. When I was working, my firm had a Weight Watchers weekly meeting. My coworkers used to call or e-mail me asking what a points value for any given food was because they knew I knew it off the top of my head. It was really funny. One would think since I know it so well that I wouldn't need to still be losing weight. Last October one of the leaders at WW strongly encouraged me to up my goal weight which I was only 2-3 pounds away from. So I agreed. Another leader piped in that this might actually work against me. Boy was she right, it did. Since October I threw caution to the wind and kind of stopped counting WW points. I had a ball and ate anything and everything my little heart desired whenever I wanted to. It wasn't until early December when it finally started to catch up with me. By the time January rolled around I had gained 10 lbs. I was so disappointed but what did I expect. Next time I will listen to my gut. I knew it was the wrong decision for me but it's a lesson learned. That's for sure.

I started menu planning my dinners last week. This is the second week and it's going great. It's so much easier to plan out the menu. All I have to do is look at the list to know what I'm making for dinner that night. So much less anxiety. It was a little crazy at first making sure I had all of the ingredients on hand. It made for 3 trips to the store instead of 1. Now I've figured it all out and we're rolling right along.

I hope everyone is having a great week. Looking forward to next Wednesday!

Much love from NJ,