Weight Watchers...it was like going home again

I love Weight Watchers! Actually, I love my Weight Watcher leader, Janis. She is absolutely amazing, and very inspiring. She makes me think, makes me want to do better and best of all, she makes me laugh.<br /><br />The thing about Weight Watchers is that it makes you focus on eating healthy, something that calorie counting alone doesn't really require. I feel excited to be back on a plan. Of course, this means what I eat and how much I exercise will become somewhat of an obsession for me (again). But that's okay. It's what I need right now<br /><br />Now for the weighin, the post Thanksgiving Day weighin where I ate too much, including pumpkin pie and apple pie. The apple pie was a frozen pie made by Plush Pippin. If you've never had a Plush Pippin pie, well, you haven't lived. They're the best! It's all gone now, so now worries about it until Thanksgiving 2012. The Plush Pippin factory is actually in Kent, Washington, very near to where I live. Funny story but about ten years ago they had an overstock sale and you could buy pies for $1.00 each at their warehouse. I remember standing in line and buying ten pies. They were delicious...and I weighed about 240 pounds then. Now I get one pie a year and share it with my husband...only on Thanksgiving. They're off limits the other 364 days of the year. <br /><br />I digress...I went from talking about my weighin to talking about pie. Not good. This is what I weighed this morning at Weight Watchers, after two cups of coffee, breakfast and I was fully dressed (obviously!). It's my true weight.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">184.4</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm really not upset by it, which is pretty amazing for me. I knew I'd gained weight the last few weeks because I wasn't paying attention. I'm one of those people that absolutely must constantly be aware of what I'm eating and how much. I gain weight easily when I'm not being careful.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This is my starting point. I have goals and the first one is to get under 180. I have a very busy schedule this next week, but I will eat carefully, and track my Points on my phone. I have a brand new Android Samsung Galaxy II S (the best phone ever!). The Weight Watcher app is easy to use so I won't have any excuses to not track.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>The hotel I stay at in Fairbanks has a decent gym, with ellipticals and treadmills and a variety of weights. Unfortunately, there isn't a Stairmaster, but there are stairs in the hotel. Only eight floors, but it's something. I can do the elliptical then run the stairs a few times, plus do weights. <br /><br />I just got home from the gym and now I have to pack. My left arm is still really weak. I can do dumbbell curls easily with my right arm at 15 pounds. My left arm can barely lift eight pounds. It's really pathetic. I'm surprised how three months in a cast and then another two weeks in a splint completely weakened my left arm. I don't have any noticeable muscle tone in my left arm. It's all flab. Really awful.. After my workouts it's so sore it aches. My right arm feels nothing because I kept lifting weights with it the entire time I had the cast. The doctor said it'll take at least six months to even get it close to what it was before my accident. More likely a year. Oh well...at least no surgery on it or it would have been a lot worse.<br /><br />I probably won't have time to post while I'm in Fairbanks, but when I get back, hopefully life will calm down a bit and I can get back to reading blogs and posting regularly (and leaving comments on all your blogs!).<br /><br />I'm really excited about Weight Watchers. After four years of being on and off of it, I feel like this is the right thing to do for myself right now. I need the structure and the accountability. It provides both. It's still hard work, but losing weight on any plan is hard work.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

Weight Watchers...it was like going home again

I love Weight Watchers! Actually, I love my Weight Watcher leader, Janis. She is absolutely amazing, and very inspiring. She makes me think,...

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Weight Watchers...again!

I quit Weight Watchers several months ago, right before I broke my wrist on August 6. It had lost it's charm, and I never like the new program that was introduced a year ago. Eat all the fruit you want "until you're full" confused me.<br /><br />I started using the BodyMedia in August and dropped twenty pound in three months, but I've put some of that weight back on. Life happened, and I stumbled.<br /><br />My sister had a major stroke, and I was in Fairbanks for six weeks of the last nine-week period dealing with a lot of family drama. These are excuses for my slip, but for once in my life I'm cutting myself a little slack on gaining weight.<br /><br />The last few months have been hideous. It's not over yet, but I see some light at the end of the tunnel. I'm returning to Fairbanks tomorrow for five days. A lot of very serious financial decisions have to be made to secure my sister's future. I have meetings with a real estate attorney, an estate planning attorney, a tax accountant, two real estate agents, the tax assessor (who highly over-appraised her rental property) and my sister's doctor and her speech therapist.   <br /><br />So here I am, a year later, and I weigh close to what I weighed a year ago...at least I think I do. I didn't weigh this morning, but I know I'm within a few pounds (I was 180.4 January 3, 2011).<br /><br />This means after a year, I've not accomplished much regarding my weight. I guess you could call it maintenance, but at 180+ I really need to lose weight, not maintain. I'm better off than I was in February 2008, when I weighed 240 pounds. I'm happy about maintaining a 60-pound loss, but I really need and want to lose weight.<br /><br />Today, it's back to Weight Watchers. I just signed up online for the meetings. My plan is the 10 a.m. meeting. I have a lot to do today, do laundry and pack, but there are two things I have to do:  Weight Watchers and the gym, in that order.<br /><br />I'll post my weigh-in results later today. Since it's post-Thanksgiving, and I'll be dressed versus not dressed when I weigh at home, I'm sure I'll be up a few pounds. That's okay. I have to start somewhere.

Weight Watchers...again!

I quit Weight Watchers several months ago, right before I broke my wrist on August 6. It had lost it's charm, and I never like the new p...

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Coming Soon to REEL LIFE...

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDbIJYubHGXO9lipgoQ5l4jReN_OaEcr8NDBS8IXB_K_dfjsm9Qv0f66G1CDM0-Q41bHFy6h8AF7EIE4KiouZeUSgAZcYKn75erYSRg8vRXeizUArIXjpLT8DjHEGY8npccfs3ZgyiEZok/s1600/Some+Came+Running.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDbIJYubHGXO9lipgoQ5l4jReN_OaEcr8NDBS8IXB_K_dfjsm9Qv0f66G1CDM0-Q41bHFy6h8AF7EIE4KiouZeUSgAZcYKn75erYSRg8vRXeizUArIXjpLT8DjHEGY8npccfs3ZgyiEZok/s320/Some+Came+Running.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span><i style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Some Came Running</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A sampling of a few posts and one event (my first!) on the near horizon for <i>The Lady Eve's Reel Life</i>:</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><u><span style="font-size: small;">The Families of Vincent Minnelli</span></u></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A look at some of the director's most memorable family-themed films, including <i>Meet Me in St. Louis </i>(1944), <i>Father of the Bride</i> (1950), <i>Some Came Running </i>(1958) and <i>Home From the Hill</i> (1960). Plus a look at the award-winning artist's own life.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9LxofMT1YMiX0ESLFXCg4sKaJehVj7Cuxqm7nibs7Pli7RDtPCvWlzbuiSGULviNoo5BcBnxN0o7HX1jhuFUHBUcN3AaDkzRFnX0zqhqHpZChxeBf4iFvPpUHnYbgaAmhbQNr-_khoMrc/s1600/These+Amazing+Shadows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9LxofMT1YMiX0ESLFXCg4sKaJehVj7Cuxqm7nibs7Pli7RDtPCvWlzbuiSGULviNoo5BcBnxN0o7HX1jhuFUHBUcN3AaDkzRFnX0zqhqHpZChxeBf4iFvPpUHnYbgaAmhbQNr-_khoMrc/s320/These+Amazing+Shadows.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u><i>These Amazing Shadows</i></u></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Late in December the PBS series "Independent Lens" will spotlight  "culturally, historically... aesthetically significant" American films included in the National Film Registry with the one-hour documentary, <i>These Amazing Shadows</i>. The registry's beginnings with National Film Preservation Act of 1988 is also covered. I'll be previewing the documentary ahead of its air date.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRO1PX2cADvf1Hm7aRrum8oSbV9CYYb-xzvWrkjs8UaFtEvkb_LmI4A6_tS0ILHNfjs3mSPkiZWe8tuSU8BCvmQaFbiMA2EPzZkinHUNTNJok0xJtGk7xKmv78dfkrdurBbcfkhya2CtkI/s1600/shop+around+the+corner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRO1PX2cADvf1Hm7aRrum8oSbV9CYYb-xzvWrkjs8UaFtEvkb_LmI4A6_tS0ILHNfjs3mSPkiZWe8tuSU8BCvmQaFbiMA2EPzZkinHUNTNJok0xJtGk7xKmv78dfkrdurBbcfkhya2CtkI/s1600/shop+around+the+corner.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><u><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The Shop Around the Corner</i></span></u></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Just in time for the holidays...a reflection on Ernst Lubitsch's 1940 classic. The director's own favorite among his films, it is set at Christmastime in Budapest, features a sparkling ensemble cast led by James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan and Frank Morgan...and 'tis perfection.<i> </i></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><u><span style="font-size: small;">A Month of <i>Vertigo</i></span></u></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">A great group of guest contributors - and me - will blog on myriad facets of Alfred Hitchcock's masterwork. I'm hoping <i>A Month of Vertigo</i> makes for a very interesting beginning to 2012...</span></span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOdGtLOI-ui_uWgq6WQJflIQtMXT96tJ0H5xFyuIlZ9wMfpuyBG4wMKy8fZ0uTROz_7iv6WE3X1wb1aG3yB649yM8DVYYAxHv88H0y84ektWA4OCAk42P5ANp4kMCeHmdNu-vNxqgeJJD1/s1600/scottie+and+madeleine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOdGtLOI-ui_uWgq6WQJflIQtMXT96tJ0H5xFyuIlZ9wMfpuyBG4wMKy8fZ0uTROz_7iv6WE3X1wb1aG3yB649yM8DVYYAxHv88H0y84ektWA4OCAk42P5ANp4kMCeHmdNu-vNxqgeJJD1/s400/scottie+and+madeleine.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>

Alfred Hitchcock PBS The Lady Eve (author) The Shop Around the Corner These Amazing Shadows Vertigo Vincente Minnelli Coming Soon to REEL LIFE...

Some Came Running A sampling of a few posts and one event (my first!) on the near horizon for The Lady Eve's Reel Life : The Families of...

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