Mopey Weigh-In, My Birthday Moccamaster, a Maharani's Feast, Meal Calorie Calculations, and the LHJ Model

Today was a tough weigh-in. I had avoided the scales for, what, just over a week, but it was time to face up to the damage done. (Cue classic Neil Young, one of my fave hippie-era songs, only the Princess version would be "The Eating and the Damage Done.")

279.6

That's the highest I've been since October of 2007! A huge step backward, really.

It is just too damn easy to regain, people. Look upon my weigh-in and be very afraid if you are thinking of slacking off even a little. Don't!

Ah, well. At least I felt calmer today. Not worse. And I didn't have crazy cravings. For breakfast I used 9 points, about 450 calories as follows:

~2 lowfat blueberry pancakes from Diet-To-Go (found them stuffed in my freezer from late last year) with one soy sausage.
~I made some sugarless compote from some blueberries hubby bought me Monday, because the berries were super-gritty and not fun to eat. The compote was passable. Start with a not-great berry, get not-great compote. But, hey, it was fruit and a pretty juiciness on the pancakes.
~I also had 1 organic, free-roaming, vegetarian egg, fried in Pam, with 1 slice Horizon organic American cheese. Just the egg and cheese was 4 points, but I wanted the extra protein/calcium.
~The highlight of my breakfast was using--for the first time--my birthday gift from hubby: a hand-made Technivorm Moccamaster coffeemaker with the gourmet coffee I ordered with it. Yum. Best cup of coffee I ever had.

What a wonderful coffeemaker. But not cheap. But hey, I'm turning 49. I need the consolation of superior cuppa joes.


So, breakfast went okay.

For lunch (which I just had, so it's more like dunch or linner), I decided to go vegetarian with spicy Indian food, so I could maybe feel comfortable with lots of flavor without having to eat a bingey 2000 or 2500 calories. I had half a cup of dal and half a cup of matar panir with a cup of rice and a very small piece of nan (about 3 inches by 2 inches) with a tablespoon of onion chutney, and one veggie samosa with a tablespoon of tamarind chutney. I had water and another cup of coffee, too.

I have no idea what the calories are (have to look it up), but my guess is that it's gonna be something like the following in points(respectively) 3 + 5 + 5 + 1 + 1 + 3 + 1. That's 19 points. About 950 cals.

Total Points: 28 so far, about 1400 cals.

And I still need to get more fruit and maybe a small salad before bed, so I get my produce in.

Now, on that Model Thing: I was browsing the March 2009 issue of Ladies Home Journal, and I noticed the model in one of the fashion/style spreads was a regular at my Pilates studio. If you want to take a look, go HERE and it's the model in the green dress, smiling. If you click the back arrow at the top left, you go to a previous page with her looking to the right out a window. Though I've only chatted with her a few times in passing, she's very amiable. (If you own the magazine, she's on page 51, 52, 54, and 56).


Updated: Thanks, Lyn. I have no idea why I wrote Neil Diamond. That's weird. :)

The Princess' Blingy Giveaway: WIN a Bracelet To Help You Stay On Track

Okay, so it's hump day--aka Wednesday--and lots of us are having trouble staying within a reasonable calorie/points range. Binge-eating has been slithering around or tempting or outright assailing and overcoming several of us--me, CC (so glad to see you back on the wagon, babe), Lyn, Diana. Maybe YOU there, too.

Anyway, I got myself yet another tool this week from Signature Charms Handmade Creations. I've been so bummed by my setbacks, that I got several of these points/calorie tracking bracelets in assorted colors, so I could match them to whatever I wore. I got em in black, brown, denim blue, turquoise blue, gray, multi-color, and red/black. That array covers most of my wardrobe--which, like the majority of us fat folks, is based on black. (Navy and dark brown slacks, too, and assorted colored tops. But black rules.) Pic at right is my wrist/arm with some of the ones I got. Not all that in focus, sorry. But I wanted you to see the colors and assorted charms (crosses, two kinds, a daisy, and a "faith" message).

I decided to share my newly acquired largesse.


I have an extra bracelet made of denim-blue beads and silvery accents with a charm that says, "Believe." Hey, we gotta have faith to work on losing weight, right? We gotta believe we can do it, right?

This should go great if you're into blue jeans, sure, but the color is semi-neutral and would look great with other blues, browns, burgundies, khakis, tans, purples, roses, grays, reds, etc. Here's a pic to the right of the style of bracelet. (This is not the right color. I couldn't copy the image that Jessica of Signature Charms uploaded to eBay.com. This picture has a brighter, lighter blue than the denim blue, which is more muted in tone and darker. See the denim blue image HERE.)

This fits up to an 8" size wrist. Probably best for 6.5 to 8 inches. I have a 7.5 inch wrist and it fits me perfectly.

Again, don't go by the color in this pic. Visit the image at ebay for a more realistic depiction of the color of the bracelet I'm giving away. Thanks. :)

This bracelet used as a 1 WW point per bead or 50 calories per bead tool can track from 28 points/or/1400 calories, to 35 points/or/1750 calories, and even how I plan to use it as 36 points/or/1800 calories. I assume you can get creative according to your needs, ie, instead of assigning 50 calories per bead, you can assign less or more. You can always get a calculator and do the division. :)

I find that one point/50 calories per bead works best.

However, you can count or discount the metal spacers as per your own individual need. (Leave them out and get 28 points. Count them and get to 35 or 36 points. If you count the starter bead--the biggest one that's the starting point/ending point--you can get to 37 points, even, which is about 1850 cals.)

Now, here's how this bracelet works--for those of you unfamiliar with the points/calorie tracking via beads:


~Choose ahead of time how you're going to do the count. Let's say with this one, we're gonna use 1750 calories per day, or 35 WW points.
~Place the removable charm at the starting point to give you 35 points. On this bracelet I'm giving away, that would be finding the starter bead (it's the bigger one with a metal spacer on each side.) Attach the charm to the outside of one of the metal spacers after the starter bead. This starts your day.
~Slide on the bracelet. (It's elastic for ease.)
~When you have a meal, calculate how many points or calorie increments of 50 you've consumed. If you eat 11 points or 550 calories, then you count eleven beads. Each spacer can pinpoint a "five" spot (so you can count in increments of five easily). So, if you eat 11 points (or 550 calories), from that starting position, you can hit two of the subsequent metal spacers (going in the opposite direction to the starter bead, not going BACK over the starter), which is 10 points/500 calories, and then one more bead. So, your charm will lie after the eleventh bead.
~Repeat the counting and replacement of charm after each meal or snack.
~When you get to the last metal spacer (the one right next to the starter bead on the OTHER side from where you started, you're done for the day. You've eaten 35 points.

If you only want to count 28 points or 1400 calories, then you skip the spacers and count in increments of 4, only for the smaller denim blue beads. No silver ones.

As I said, this can be modified to suit your own caloric needs. If you need more beads (ie, you eat 2000 calories or 40 points per day), then simply move the charm BACK five spaces when you reach 35 (which will give you 5 more points/250 more calories) and then finish your counting normally.

There you go. I'm gonna give this a try and see if it helps keep me conscious of my consumption a bit more easily than journaling (which is a pain). At least it's cuter than a WW journal.

If you'd like a shot at winning this denim points/calorie tracking bracelet, here are the rules: 1. Reside in the USA, as I will only mail domestically. (Sorry, gotta economize on postage). 2. Leave a comment with your name or nickname and tell me if you count points or count calories and also how many you aim to eat per day maximum. 3. Leave your email (disguised so you don't get spammed, sort of like ImADieter atsy yahoo dotsy com), so that I can contact you if you win.

If you prefer not to leave your email here publicly, then you'll have to check back here to see if you won and then contact me within 2 days of my announcement of your win, or I will select another person to win.

Note that you will eventually have to give me your snail mail address, so that I can send this to you.

And if you don't win, or if you prefer another color, be sure to check out the selection at Signature Charms Handmade Creations. She'll also happily custom create a charm bracelet for you to your specifications--if you need more or fewer beads or a specific charm. She is having a sale now--bracelets normally 9.50 are reduced to 7.99. Tell Jessica the Princess Dieter sent ya.

Note: Winner will be announced on my birthday--Feb 20. I won't be the only one getting a goody that way. :)
~

WW eTools Points Tracker is Kinda Fun!

My first day using my eTools Points Tracker. There's an activity tracker, but my activities today have pretty much been drinking water, doing nebulizer treatments of albuterol, making healthful meals, and watching tv/reading/peeing from all that water. And blogging. Lots of that.

It's sorta fun. Maybe in a week, it will seem like a drag. But for now...a toy!

I put in all my food, and I've had 19 points so far (which is like 950 cals). I had two moments today when I almost gave in to bad food--a wild 7 minutes of pizza craving, where I finally said NO enough times to mean it; and another wild moment when I almost called to have Chinese food delivered, and I don't mean steamed chicken and veggies, neigther. That "no" stuck, too.

So, I have a grilled balsamic chicken on an endive and watercress salad as the plan for dinner. I have 12 points left according to my tracker; though I will allow myself more, as 31 points can leave me hungry a lot of days, nuts hungry. 31 pts = about 1550 cals. I have no guilt issue with going up to 1800 or 1900. I just don't wanna go over 2000, really. If I can keep it to 1800 (36 pts), I'd be pleased as many fruit punches.

If you don't like doing WW in real life, try the online one. The tools are cool.

Anyway, my meals thus far:

Bkfst: I made my fave Easy Cheesy Eggie Veggies that I mentioned in a post earlier this week, but I put them in sprouted corn tortillas (organic) and added a bit of fire-roasted salsa on top. YUM! And only 7.5 points total, including a half cup of cranberry juice cocktail (those mini containers like in hospitals) that I had leftover from some Diet-To-Go meal from a few months back. Lots of water. Coffee. (I drink it not just for taste, but for the asthma benefits.) I saved part of the eggie veggies for a proteinish snack, but I never got hungry enough for one. Might just heat it up for tomorrow's brekky.

Lunch: A double-Gardenburger on Ezekiel bread sandwich with 2 slices of 2% cheddar. I had half of one of those glorious organic grapefruits I got Sunday at the farmer's market. Man, never had such yummy grapefruit. or at least, it feels that way in my mouth. :D Lots of water. Coffee. An ounce of tart cherry concentrate mixed with water (mmmm, nice and anti-inflammatory).

So far, not feeling ravenous. I am peckish now. It's clearly dinnertime. But I'm waiting on hubby.

Tomorrow, I see my doc (need more meds and an Rx for a mammo, for which I'm a tad overdue). And after my appointment, I plan to zip by the Fresh Market or, if I don't mind driving a bit farther (depending how the breathing goes and I feel) Whole Foods to replenish some of the veggies/fruits I ate up (zucchini, mushrooms, peppers, papaya, berries) and buy some chicken breasts and sliced cheese. Also need some egg whites.

Hope your Wednesday was healthful and happy. Toodles.
~~