Week 4 Days 1-3 A Busy Week

Week 4 Day 1, March 14th

(March 13 Tuesday) meeting night
Steps for the Day - 8,901


Day 1, March 14th  Wedensday

A day in Walnut Creek with my youngest daughter.  My youngest daughter was all concerned about eating in front of me, but there was no problem at all.

Steps for the day - 3,904


Day 2, March 16h Thursday

My daughter and I had an unexpected chance to go for a little overnight trip to Monterey with our youngest grandson.  Beautiful place to stay, wonderful time.

My oldest daughter was all concerned about eating in front of me, but there was no problem at all.

Steps for the day - 16,776

Day 3 March 17th Friday

Steps for the day - 7,400

Day 4 March 18th Saturday

Day 5 March 19th Sunday

Day 6 March 20h Monday

Day 7 March 21, Tuesday

Our meeting  - I lost 2 lbs this week!

Week 3 Day 7, March 14- Weighing-In Night

Tonight is our meeting.  I am a little nervous about it.  This is where usually I weigh in with no weight loss or even go up a bit.  I always blame it on muscle weight because I have kicked up exercise at that point.  But whatever it is really disapointing.  I actually stuck with it for a long time with Weight Watchers so it has brought on anxiety this time.  I always figured I had "cheated" somewhere" and sometimes that was true.  This time, there is no where to cheat.  I have eaten the food I get to eat and that is it.  So hoping it will be a good reading tonight.

I feel good and have been upping my exercise.  I feel like my stomach area and my "2nd stomach" are smaller and not as "solid" like something is leaving that area.  So who knows.

We went for a shorter walk this morning, only 3,971 steps.  And I am still trudging up that hill.  Can't wait until I can do it like last fall again.  

Week 3 day 6, Monday, March 13 "House cleaning" steps!

Today I spent cleaning house, not my house but the Patterson House at Ardenwood.

The house has been closed since Christmas Open House, December 2016.  Then the Christmas decorations were all taken down and put away...but all the Christmas tree needles and glitter hadn't been cleaned up.  The guys that do the floors won't be coming until March 31!  We are opening for this Saturday for Sheep Shearing Day so the house needs to be all cleaned before then.  

I managed to clean all of the downstairs except the Docent Kitchen.  It was good exercise though.  I put on 7,200 steps doing it.

Todays total steps are: 8,678

Week 3 Day 5, Sunday March 12

I was a bit stiff and my hip had ached a bit during the night.  Simone and I decided to walk in the afternoon instead of the morning.  The time has changed to Daylight Savings Time and we needed a bit of time to adjust.

The steps for today are 6,421.

Week 3 Day 4 , Saturday March 11 Stepping up the walking, Picture at this point

So this is where I am at this point.  I will have to have my husband take a photo that shows more so we can compare as the weeks go on.

I can feel the difference in the stomach area.  And my, what I call my 2nd stomach, the area just above my stomach.  The have both gotten lighter and tiny bit smaller.

The weather is beautiful and our walking has stepped up.  When I got home I had 8,283 on my fitbit.  I'm going to meet my 10,000 goal again today!

So far, this is the easiest diet I have been on, but then I haven't really had to DO anything.  I just eat the food at the time designated, drink my gallon of water a day and move.  At the same time though, I have a bit of anxiety on the time after the food replacement of this diet.  I am not lacking for anything now but if I am on my own I can get undone little by little.  I have failed from my undisiplined self so often.   And I don't want to do it again.  I would have no problem if someone just told me what I should eat, how much and when and give me the supplies.  Maybe if I have a very light breakfast, a  snack in the morning, Blue Apron meal and a very light snack in the evening, that would work.  I really enjoy Blue Apron but they are heavy on olive oil, butter.  The calorie count is usually between 550-600.

The steps for today was10.838.

Week 3 Day 3, Friday

Yesterday evening the eyes started acting up.  I was a tiny hungry and the eyes started really noticing food.  Hubby's tv dinner of macaroni and cheese leftovers....something I would never be tempted with, looked a little intriguing last night.  And smells were heightened.  It wasn't bad, but if  my food-alert wasn't on I would have probably been into something.

 This morning I woke up and felt quite hungry.  I didn't get up for about a half hour and by that time the hunger feeling was gone.

My first food is at 8am and since I was up at 7 I heated up some water, put in a slice of lemon and turned on the news.  When my Alexa alarm went off I wasn't really hungry but got my shake to save for about a half hour.

I have Alexa programmed for an alarm at each of my food times.  Sometimes I know she is going to send the alarm and it is a little annoying because I have to get up to tell her to stop, other times it is completely surprising it is time to eat.  I tell myself that getting up to tell Alexa to stop the alarm is good for the "steps" number.

I have been noticing that my new fitbit charge 2 does not sync as often as my fitbit one.  and this morning the dashboard on my phone really had yesterday's step number wrong.....it takes the app a while to get her act together in the morning!

Yesterday I did another walk at the Marsh alone.Simone and I walked which really brings up the steps.

Steps for today are: 10,852.

Week 3 Day 1, Wednesday March 8, 2017 Dealing with loss

This happens every time I would loose weight:  In my head somewhere I have this feeling that I can't loose, (even if I did!)  so I have to make that a reality.  My other self fights it but always seems to loose the battle.  I got so I just wouldn't look at the scale.  At Weight Watchers I wouldn't pay attention to the numbers.  This actually did help somewhat.

So we had weigh-in last evening and this morning I woke up kind of not believing that I did loose 7 lbs and then just not believing it will stay off.  This is really important to me to loose weight and feel better and I am nervous about when I am back on my own.  I have to have a plan ahead and am hoping the program will help with this.  I think I need some hypnosis or something!

I went for a walk by myself today, just a short one, 10 min.

We got this weeks food last night:

7 Chicken soup
7 tomato soup

7 chocolate shakes
7 strawberry shakes
7 vanilla shakes

7 peppermint chocolate bar
7 double berry bar

If you notice I have 7 extra servings for this week....that is because I got an extra box of 7 servings of soup.  That is because I will be trying out tomato soup tonight, if I don't like it I will not be stuck with a whole week with a soup a day that I don't like.

When I put in the order for next week I added more extra food for variety, not for eating extra:

7 Chicken soup
7 tomato soup

7 chocolate shakes
7 strawberry shakes
7 vanilla shakes

7 powdered vanilla shakes - for keeping in the car

7 peppermint chocolate bar
7 double berry bar
7 Fudge Graham

I will be going on a trip for 4 days in May so I will be stockpiling the powdered shakes and some soup and bars for taking on the trip.

My steps for today: 7178

Week 2, Day 7 Tuesday Weigh in!

Tonight was our weigh in and meeting!

Blood pressure much better.  Turns out I realized several days ago that somehow I ended up taking the med that the doctor has replaced the water pill and the potassium but had left out the blood pressure pill that I was still supposed to take.  It just hit me out of the blue one morning.  That is probably why my blood pressure had been up.  So, tonight the readings were 144/76/98

And the weight is 181.0, 7 pounds down from last week when it was so high.

BMI is 33.6

FAT % is 45.9 when it should be 24-365 lbs.

FAT MASS is 83. lb when it should be 31.0-55.0 lbs.

So all in all, I am doing good.

We got our weeks food, I ordered 2 new bars and a tomato soup to give variety.

My steps for today 5,500 steps at 8pm.

My outlook has been very good, but a bit bored with the rain.  I don't have a sewing project because if my weight is going to change so much I might not want to start one.....although I am thinking of a black 1900s skirt because I am working on a hat it would go with.  What I really need is to do a blouse for it.

The calendar is getting filled again so there won't be any boredom around here!

Week 2, Day 5, March 5, Sunday Test results! Not pre-diabetic any more!

The test results so far are:

One week on the food replacement program and I have gone from pre-diabetic to the top number of acceptable or "Normal High":

Well, that feels better than saying I am pre-diabetic.  One week in, not


I need to step up the water drinking today.  I started a bit late.

I did have a bit of light headenes this evening.  Momentary dizziness is listed as a possible side affect. It went away after I had my chicken soup at 8pm.

Week Two, Day 4, Saturday

 Today went fine.  I am now starting to feel some hunger before eating.
This hasn't really been happening till now.  Smells of food have become VERY pleasant, not making me hungry but really nice.  Today the eyes are kicking in.  I almost pick up a tidbit to put in my mouth.  So far, I have never gotten to the point of actually picking it up.  Grapes in the refrigerator is such a habit for me to take a few.  Julians Brussels sprout was asking me to pick it up!

But other than that, the stomach is starting to kick in and I am getting hungry for the next food time.  I have Alexa ringing an alarm whenever it is time to eat, maybe I will become like Pavlove's dog!

I went for a short bike ride but am not sure how that registers on my fitbit... as steps???

I have 3800 steps for today.

Week 2, day 4 Friday

We have to have labs this week for next week.  So I went to Kaiser for the labs and the gal at the desk asks if I am fasting.  No....because they didn't mention we should fast...how do we do all our meals on time if we are fasting and don't get to the lab first thing in the morning?

Well, it turns out that the lab tech said I only had one draw to be done and it didn't require fasting....so good thing I had decided to do it today and that way I found out, otherwise I would have to go back again tomorrow.

So far I haven't been hungry at all, although I have started to notice the smell of food yesterday was really obvious.  Today, I looked in my purse when I was at Kaiser and saw I had cash.  Right away I thought, oh, good, I can get a whooper on my way home.......NOT.  Interesting that it was just the sight of the cash that brought it on.  I wasn't hungry.

The other thing was that I figured I was a martyr and I deserved to get something, food related, of course.

So, the good thing is that I avoided those calories! And, I wasn't even hungry.I have noticed a continuing higher energy level, but my arthritis is acting up and I have some aches from falling in the puddle yesterday so I can't do all I would like to.  I did do a bit of weeding and cleaned out a couple more cabinets.

I walked this morning so I have over my 10,924 steps and it is only 6 pm.  I had my last shake and my snack tonight at 8pm will be my chicken soup.  I put it last today, but I really like it so much I think I will have it at 6pm from now on.

Next week I will have tomato soup instead.

Week 2, Day 2 March 2, 2017 Thursday

Well, it all started ok, but........

I started drinking my water and at 8am had my breakfast strawberry shake.  I packed water and a snack bar for 11am if I needed it.

I got a call from Cathy the Luke needed a ride to Ohlone this morning.  That was ok.  I was going to walk with Simone at 9 and we would make sure we got back to the cars by 10:40 and all would work.

I got over to Don Edwards at 9, Simone arrived about the same time.  We walked the marsh and then headed to the path on the east side of the hill.  Now we had done this a couple days ago and there is a huge mud puddle from the rain water seeping off the hill .  Along the edge of the path, in part of the puddle, someone has put down a rock, a 1' 4x4, a 2' 2x4, another rock, and a couple more 2x2s and another rock with brush on the side.  Simone in front of me was doing ok  and I was following her until I got to the 2nd rock.  The rock is really slanted and my foot didn't get high enough and...next thing I knew I was going down!!  Lucky for me I ended up on the path side of the puddle because the path is hard gravel, nicely packed with about 3" of water.  The other side of the rock is REALLY muddy!!  So I ended up on my side in the puddle, somewhat muddy but mostly wet!  So that ended our walk.  I had to get home to get cleaned up to go pick up Luke.

I managed to pick up Luke early so that was good and had a nice talk with him on the way.

I wasn't really hungry by 11am but I was driving home at that point and was really looking forward to a restroom!!  I did manage to get home in time and all was well in that respect.

I was rather achy from the fall, I put some ice on my knee which got bruised and the palm of my hand did and still does hurt.  It took the brunt of the fall.  I iced it the afternoon.  I did take a tylonal which is permitted.  I took a nap, that help.  I am going to look for some pieces of 4x4 in Julian's stash to had to that little "bridge" across that puddle for tomorrow!  Maybe I should throw in a change of clothes, just in case!!

The rest of the day went uneventful, thank heavens!

I have my 8pm snack to go and at this point I have 6.500 steps.  I will probably have another thousand on before bedtime.

Just a note:  I had soup for supper and was a bit hungry before making it.  That is the first time I have been a bit hungry so far.  Not uncomfortable on this diet at all so far.  Hubby did make a wonderful smelling lunch and delicious looking and smelling butternut squash.  The squash did make me want to take a spoonful! not because I was hungry but because it looked and smelled so good!

Week 2, Day One!!!!

Yesterday just before going to the meeting I remembered I had to eat so I would not get all rummy like I did last week.  By the end of last weeks meeting I just could not figure out how I should choose the foods to order.  So yesterday, at the last few minutes before I had to leave I had a Lean Cuisine fetticini meal.   I had finished all my water minus two glasses for when I got home.

I had left at 3:40 so I would get there on time although the traffic was way better than last time.  I sat in the car till 4:55 so I would arrive at 5pm when they had told us to arrive.  There were almost all the class there already so next time I will go in right when I get there. 

When I had my weight taken I was up 3 lbs from last weeks meeting.  The nurse said for the program they use the weight from the first meeting but in my head I could use the number of last nights weight so I will feel better next week with the amount I have lost. Actually I haven't even put either weight into my brain bank....I think I just want to hear the weight loss or even not register that either.  I have mind games my brain plays with me so for now I think I will just do the plan and not pay attention to the weight number or loss number.....I may change that plan as I go on!

My schedule:

8 AM           shake
11 AM         soup
1 PM            shake
3 PM            snack
6 PM            shake
8 PM            snack

I have Alexa giving me an alarm for each one.

This is what a "shake" looks like. Strawberry, Vanilla and Chocolate.  I think Vanilla is my favorite right now, Strawberry, the least favorite but then I don't really care for any strawberry flavored things.

This is what a Peanut Crunch bar is.  It is about the size of an energy bar and looks like one too.  I cut it up so I have little nuggets...lasts longer that way.

 

The bars are alway yummy...they gave us samples of all the foods except soups at our first meeting.

The Peanut Bar is the last food of the day.  The day went great.  After the breakfast Vanilla Shake I felt like I had a cup of caffInated coffee!  I had so much energy and get up and go....I wonder if they put something in the shake or was it one of those psych things and it was just my excitement to start this!

I felt like the day before my first baby was born!- I had decided to redo our library shelves and wash the CEILING.  Can't believe I did that...well, I didn't get too far on the ceiling.  I was due with a 9 pounder!

Anyhow, I weeded several times during the day and have a trash barrel full of weeds.  And I cleaned out 2 kitchen cabinet before I chilled.

By days end, I have finished all the food for the day, never was really hungry. I finished the gallon of water early and have 7,600 steps for the day.  So far, so good!