Up on my soapbox

I love sleeping baby pictures. He still looks so little and innocent when he sleeps.
Then there is that grouchy boy look we see quite often.
I love this picture for some reason even though he's doing something weird with his mouth.
Birds of a feather.....
A summer rite of passage--catching lightening bugs. Or fireflies. Whatever.

I have now lost 27 pounds and have either 9 lbs. or 14 lbs. to go depending on where I ultimately set my goal. We shall see. A lot of people have been asking me what I'm doing and if it's hard. Well, here are some thoughts (keeping in mind that I am definitely not an expert!!!)
- Weight Watchers works if you go to the meetings every week and STAY. I don't know why it works, but it does.
- Excercise--and not just going for a walk. Serious, sweaty, heavy-breathing excercise. I'm sure walking works great, but I've got a timeline and I don't think walking is going to get me there in that amount of time.
- Indulge yourself by eating something you love once a week. I let myself eat one meal without worrying about points once each week. This week it was a cheeseburger and fries from Culver's. Last week it was Mexican food. The week before it was a doughnut. If I indulge more than once a week, I work out twice as hard for 2 days.
- Buy high fiber, low fat, low sugar foods. There are so many yummy choices out there that I don't feel deprived at all. Example: This morning I had a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit WW style: WW english muffin, 1 pc. turkey bacon, egg beater, WW cheese. Delicious and only 3 points. At McDonalds, it would be 9 or 11 points and doesn't taste that much different.
-I switched to Diet soda which darn near killed me but now, 3 months later, doesn't bother me a bit. I swore I would never do this. It just doesn't taste the same BUT I refuse to drink my points. I think one of the tricks to switching successfully is to never, never go back to the real stuff. Then you don't know what you are missing.
-I have lots of support from my parents, my sister and my friends.
-Hearing people tell you how good you look is very addictive and inspiring. It means soooooo much to me when people notice that I am trying.
-If I can do it, anyone can. Honestly. I do not have much will power but I haven't needed will power--the system just works!
-It wasn't easy at first but now it is. Sometimes it's easier than others.
-This is a WW theme--healthy eating starts at the grocery store. If you don't buy it and bring it into your home--you can't eat it. Soooo, sooooo true.
-Your kids will eat healthy options if that's all they have.
- So will you.
- A healthy option doesn't just mean carrot sticks. It can be a lower cal, lower sugar version of something like ice cream.
- I do have a timeline and I think that is helping me. I don't have time to mess up.
- I read somewhere that if you do mess up (which we all do at some point) don't wait until "tomorrow" to get back on track, do it with your next bite. Which means, don't take the next bite of "bad" food.
- Be prepared. It's much easier to stay on track if you have the right things to eat. I carry Fiber One bars (OMG they are soooo good) with me so that if I get a hankering for something, I eat that. Otherwise I will end up in the Culver's drive through ordering a double scoop turtle sundae. Seriously.
- Fast food and restaurants are the enemy. Of course they have good options, but it is hard to always make the good choices when you have so many wonderful bad choices in front of you. Unfortunately, eating at home most of the time is more figure friendly for MOST of us.
O.K., it's time to get off my soap box and work out.
By the way, I owe 99% of my weight loss success to my friend Dawn because she is the one who asked me if I wanted to go to Weight Watchers. Without her, I wouldn't have joined and I wouldn't be preaching here today. I can't thank you enough, Dawn!!!