Losing Weight for my Master's & Beating Diabetes-Comments welcome and appreciated

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Hi all!

I'm Jessi (Hi Jessi!) and I am trying to lose weight . My current weight is somewhere around 154, I will find out tomorrow at weigh in. I want to get down to 100. Now, I know what most people think when they see that- she's going to be anorexic! However, I am 4'10". That works out to a BMI of about 20 or 21. I have discussed this weight with my doctor and that is what I plan to aim for.

I admit part of it is psychological. I started college when I was 15 and quickly put on the freshman 15 (and the sophomore 15, and the junior 15 ). I used to weight about 98- that was where I was most comfortable at. I have never been comfortable since I hit the "triple digits" as I have always thought of it, and I think that has been a big influence on my thinking and therefore my weight.

I have been doing WW for several years now. I had the most success when I worked entertainment and was dancing in three parades and two shows a day. I didn't have to follow the plan that carefully and I still lost weight! Now that I have returned to MO, the weight has piled on at an alarming rate and enough is enough.

I am tired of yo-yoing, and tomorrow I am going to start following the plan again. This means counting points, journalling, exercising. The one problem I have is I have to have knee surgery on the 9th for Plica Band Syndrome. I have been experiencing problems since my last CP, and they got much worse after I started waitressing. I've been scared to do anything strenuous because I never know when my knee is going to give up on me. I do walk my two dogs as often as I can, and I am trying to walk to class more often.

I am a student earning my Master's in Special and Elementary Education, with an add on certification in middle school Language Arts. In two years I will pursue my gifted certification (you must teach for two years in my state first). My mother said to me that she wants tme to lose the weight by the time I get my master's, and I think that that is a good goal. I know that I am less than satisfied with pictures from my bachelor's because of my weight, I want my master's to be different!

Now, I am off to get a good night's sleep for once in my college career, and tomorrow will start the first day of a new me!

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Ok, I had my "last first weigh in" today. Here are my stats:

Current weight: 151.6
10% Goal: -15 or 136.6
Final Goal: 100

Current BMI: 32
10% BMI: 28.4
Goal BMI: 21

Measurements (TBA):

Here is a "before" picture, this was taken this past Spring Break at WDW (of course).

I used to work entertainment at WDW and plan to one day go back (teach full time work entertainment part time). I know that at my current weight I probably couldn't do it, so it is not just my Master's that is motivating me, but the prospect of going back down and being able to perform again one day. Seeing some of my "good friends" like Donald Duck just increases that motivation .

These are pictures of my last CP when I was much closer to my goal than I am now, they were taken when I weighed around 120. One is me with my "good friend" Mickey, the other is a picture of me as a Santa Girl for the Happy HollyDays Parade at what was then known as Disney MGM Studios.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Now that all of the background stuff is done, here is my journal for today.

July 15, 2008

I know that it does not look very healthy. My goal for this week is to journal and count everything, a huge weakness of mine. I am not focusing on the Good Health Guidelines, I will start focusing on those next week.

I was proud of myself, without meaning to, I only used one flex point. This could have something to do with the fact that I had a bad headache and slept through lunch. I did get a 45 minute walk in with the dogs. I am currently have a knee problem (surgery will be on the 9th), and I was definitely feeling it by the end of the walk. I can't wait til it's fixed and I can start Couch to 5k. At leat in the mean time the "monkeys" and I can walk together.

I love walking. We live in a rural area, so even though I am in the middle of town, it is still very wooded. The first part of our walk takes us to a dead end, and today we saw five rabbits, and even a deer! I love seeing the wildlife, it is such a beautiful place. I will miss this part of it when I graduate, although I won't miss not having a mall or anything to do. The town where I got school is like Radiator Springs from Cars, just a tad bigger.

Daily Points Target: 23
Weekly Points Allowance Left: 35

Breakfast:
6 pts Belgian Waffle w/ Strawberries
2 pts Coke
Points Left: 15

Lunch:
Had a headache so I slept through it

Dinner:
3 pts. Mountain Dew
3 pts. 12 Tortilla Chips
5 pts. Tamale
Points Left: 4

Dessert:
7 pts. McDonald's Hot Fudge Sundae
Points left: -3

Activity
2 pts. 45 min. walk with the dogs

Points left: -1

Weekly Points Allowance Left: 34

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Another good day! So far I have been able to journal everything and have resisted the tempation to graze- definitely my biggest weakest (well, tied with soda). I also did a 50 minute walk with the puppies tonight! I could have easily skipped it as we didn't start until 9:15, but I decided it was worth it. Thankfully I live in a rural community with very low crime.

I have to admit, since returning to MO I have turned into a wuss. I don't walk to class or walk the dogs during the day because it is so stinking hot. When I worked entertainment, I used to do the parades in MK (Opening Day Cast of DDCT! Oh yeah!), and it was much hotter than this. I have turned into a total wimp.

This weekend I am visiting my parents. Normally my two puppies come with and it's the one thing that gets me to walk with my dad. They aren't coming this weekend however. Our neighbor's german shepherd attacked our 12 year old Dachshund Schnitzel. He had to have extensive surgery Monday and just came home today. If they had waited even one more day on the surgery he would have died. He's doing very well, but right now he looks like Frankendoggy, and we figured having my two rambunctious monkeys around would not be a good thing, so they are being boarded.

My father and I might go to a state park called Ha Ha Tonka, it's a really neat park with ruins of a "castle" a man tried to build. It's guaranteed activity points!

Here is a picture of Eragon (brown) and Matthias (white), my walking crew:

This is a picture of Schnitzel (pre-attack)

Food Journal for July 16:
Points Target: 23
Weekly Points Allowance Left: 34

Breakfast:
3 pts. Mini Bagel with light cream cheese
1 pt. One plain fried egg (aka, no butter, Pam, nothin')
Points Left: 19

Lunch:
4 pts. Stouffer's stuffed pepper
2 pts. Skim Milk
Points Left: 13

Midday Snack:
3 pts. Mountain Dew
3 pts. Mini bag of popcorn with parmesan cheese
Points left: 7

Dinner:
3 pts. KFC original drumstick
4 pts. KFC crispy drumstick
1 pt. KFC green beans
2 pts. 1/2 serving KFC baked beans
3 pts. Mt. Dew
Points left: -6

Dessert:
3 pts. Chocolate Milk
Points left: -9

Activity:
2 pts. Walking with the monkeys!
Points left: -7

WPA left: 27

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I had another good day today, not great, but good. I took the puppies on a 60 minute walk, which felt nice. I would like my town to be more walking friendly (sidewalks on more streets, lights that don't go out every two minutes, etc.) We go at night right now because of the heat, and it's a little spooky sometimes.

I did use more points than I intended, but I'm still averaging less than 5 flex points a day. If you divide out the flex points evenly, you get 5 a day. I try to eat less during the week because I know the weekend is more challenging, especially when I go home.

Here is my journal for July 17, 2008
Daily Target: 23
WPA left: 27

Breakfast:
I was up late working on a paper so I slept in

Lunch:
5 pts. 3/4 of a McDonald's Cheeseburger
2.5 pts 1/2 serving small french fries
2 pts. Coke
Points Left: 13.5

Midday Snack:
4 pts. Frappuccino
3 pts. Popcorn with parmesan
Points Left: 6.5

Dinner:
13.5 Chinese buffet (egg drop soup, egg roll, steamed rice, chinese vegetables, broccoli beef, and mountain dew. (just a little of each)
Points left: -7

Activity:
3 pts. 60 Minute Walk with the dogs
Points left: -4

WPA left: 23

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I'm so proud of myself. the theatre is a big weakness for me, and last night I was able to sit through almost three hours of Batman without having something to eat or drink. I can't remember the last time I watched a movie in the theatre without some kind of snack! I'm at my parents' today and even though there are no dogs to walk (Schnitzel is still recovering), I did go on a 40 minute walk with my father. It was great because normally he's the one forcing me to go, and this time I had to practically force him to.

Tomorrow we're going to this beautiful state park called Ha Ha Tonka. I'll be earning lots of activity points for hiking, and at the end of the trail are the amazing castle ruins. Basically, a millionaire decided to build a castle in the Lake of the Ozarks. Lightning struck it and it burned down. It was one of my favorite places to visit as a kid.

Food Journal for July 18,2008
Target: 23
WPA: 23

Breakfast:
Slept in after Batman!

Lunch:
7 pts Lean Cuisine Pizza
2 pts. Mountain Dew
Points left: 14

Dinner:
3 pts. Lee's roasted drumstick
4 pts. Lee's crispy drumstick
4 pts. Lee's hot apples
0 pts. Lee's green beans
3 pts. Moutain Dew
Points Left: 0

Dessert and late night snack:
5 pts. Kid Scoop of Chocolate Cake Batter from Cold Stone
3 pts. mini bagel and egg
Points Left: -8

Activity:
2 pts. Walking

Points left: -6

WPA left: 16

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Today was fun by exhausting. My father and I went to Ha Ha Tonka and hiked for two hours (not intentionally). It's a beautiful state park with caves, springs, and even a castle ruin.

You can park near the castle and walk a short distance there, in addition to the other trails. We started out on the River Cave trail, the cave was closed but it was a nice trail. We then went to the springs trail. We saw what appeared to be an overlook and decided to climb to it. The sign said it was strenuous with over 300 stairs, but we decided to go anyway and take it easy. It turns out we ended up walking to the castle from there, it was torture. I did earn 6 activity points though! We also walked to the Natural Bridge. I have not been that sweaty or exhausted in a long time.

This is a picture of part of the staircase:

To give you an idea of how far we hiked: Our car was by Tonka Spring Road on the lower left hand corner and the castle is in the middle portion of the map we had to pass the Water Tower to go there:

This gives it some perspective: We started out at the base of the cliff where the lake is. The castle can be seen at the top in the very right hand corner:

After that we went to the Bridal Cave and took a tour. It was a nice leisurely walk, and it was so cool in there! (As in neat, and in temperature)

It was nice to be able to spend some time with my father and exercise at the same time.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I pretty much crashed and burned today. I didn't have my stuff with me, so I just guestimated how I was doing, and boy did I do poorly! I was very proud of myself for having a healthy dinner (salmon at LongHorn), and a health lunch. It was the little snacks that killed me. I ate 40 points today (I get 23) and am now 8 points over my WPA. I still have one more day left in this week. Yipes!

I did not exercise today at all, I decided to take a day off. This is mostly due to the fact that my left leg is covered in poison ivy, and I twisted my left foot on a rock. It was a little scare because I heard a crack (thank God it was just a stick.) My left ankle is somewhat swollen, it doesn't actually hurt so I think it's from the poison ivy (or whatever it is I got into). It itches like the dickens! Thank God for WebMD. I looked it up last night and it said to put a wet compress on it. I have been tying wet towels to my leg whenever I'm home and it feels a million times better. Too bad I can't go to class with a towel on my leg, it's much more effective than calamine lotion. I'm scared to use anything else because I am highly allergic to topical Benadryl so most topical meds make me very wary.

I just hope that my srew up today does not impede my progress at weigh in on Tuesday. I'm going to choose to focus on the fact that I made healthy choices for breakfast lunch and dinner, instead of going over my points because of snacking.

 

[SueM in MN]

I followed the link in your signature to your journal and just wanted to wish you luck.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Thanks Sue! My journal was starting to feel lonely .

So, I meant to do well today, and then I walked into my sped class. Our normal prof is gone, and the one filling in made us all gooey butter bars. It was all downhill from there. I did plan on at least walking today, as I picked up my puppies from the boarder. (They couldn't come with me because Schnitzel is still recovering.) Well, a exactly 8pm, the time I intended to go, we had somewhere between quarter and golfball sized hail! So that shot down my plans for at least some activity. Oh well, tomorrow is the start of week 2 and it's back on track for me. Now that I know the butter bars will be there, I will be prepared.

This week my goals are:
1.) Journal all week and stay within my points (Of course, I meant to do this last week)
2.) Limit soda to once a day
3.) Get my two servings of milk in each day.

This week has been a mixture of ups and downs, butwith every mistake I learn something new, so hopefully I can put that into practice.

 

[Joanna71985]

Hey Jessi. I saw your link, and want to wish you good luck! I also love your pictures.

 

[wdw4us]

Love the pictures and your resolve to continue on WW even if you do have a few bumps in the road. We all have them but it's a new day today start fresh.

Denise

 

[Amy&Dan]

Hi Jessi,

Welcome to Wish! Thanks for stopping by my journal, I just caught up with you. You have a busy life, I really admire your ambition to get that Masters degree and lose weight. You can do it! That is so cool you used to be in entertainment at WDW, loved the Holly Days parade pic!

I think you have done very well this week. You got in a lot of activity, especially at the state park/castle with your dad. And I think your food was really good most days. I have a soda problem too, so I hear you on that one. I hope your weigh in was a good one, I am betting it was.

And I know all about gooey butter cakes, they are deadly (but delicious). Keep up the good work!

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Well, my two days off track cost me. I did not lose weight, but on the upside, I did not gain weight either. I'll take it! I did get back on track today which felt great. I got in a close to two hour walk with my crew tonight, which was nice since we definitely did not walk last night thanks to a mondo hail storm. I kept to my goal of one soda for the day, and it wasn't as bad as I thought! Sadly, I did not get my milk in as apparently my milk expired yesterday and I wasn't going to run out at 10pm to get more, so I did not get milk in.

Overall I had a pretty good day, and my morning class for tomorrow is cancelled so I get to sleep in! Hallelujah!

Food Journal for July 22, 2008:
Target: 23
WPA Left: 35

Breakfast:
6 pts. Gooey Butter Bars (yum!)
Points Left: 17

Lunch:
7pts. Chicken Enchirito
3 pts. Mt. Dew
Point Left: 7

Dinner: (Ponderosa Buffet)
0 pts. Iced Tea
1 pts. Salad with FF Italian Dressing
3 pts. Tomato Soup
0 pts. Green Beans and Tomatoes
3 pts. Small Bites of mac & cheese and potatoes
6 pts. Fried chicken wing
4 pts. Ice Cream
Points Left: -10

Activity:
5 pts. 2 hour walk with my monkeys!

WPA Left: 5

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Joanna, WDW4us, Amy&Dan: Thanks for all of the support!

 

[traceycooper]

Hi Jessie
welcome to wish
i loved the pics of the park you visited, i love walking & dont do nearly enough of it!!
you had my dream job - well almost - i want to be minnie mouse
keep up the great work

 

[toystoryduo]

Welcome to WISH, Jessi!

It sounds like you are off to a great start! Keep up the good work!

That is so awesome that you worked at Disney! I want to work there someday. I'd love to hear more about your experiences as a CM.

I'm so sorry to hear about your dog. How is he doing?

I hope you have a great Wednesday! We're glad you're here!

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Tracey: Actually, I did have your dream job . Eventually I'll have to post some more parade pics.

Toystoryduo: Thanks for the welcome. My parents are keeping me updated, and it sounds like Schnitzel is doing well. He doesn't really seem to be phased by it at all. I think he's kind of enjoying all the extra attention (and the potato chips my father has been sneaking him because he feels bad, mom doesn't know ). The nieghbors got rid of their dog, or so it seems, so we're happy.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Well, today went well. I managed to get in my two milk servings, eat decently healthy, and take the dogs on an hour and fifteen minute walk. I also met my goal of journalling and only having one soda a day!

As promised, more pictures:

This is me on my birthday in 06, about halfway to my goal weight from where I am now: (Taken at MNSSHP)

Here is a parade pic:

Food Journal for July, 23, 2008:
Target: 23
WPA Left: 23

Breakfast:
Morning class was cancelled so I slept in!

Lunch:
2 pts. Milk Jug
4 pts. Chicken McNuggets
5 pts. Small Fry
Total: 11

Snack:
4 pts. Snicker's Ice Cream Bar

Dinner:
6 pts. Fried Chicken Drumsticks
3 pts. Mountain Dew
0 pts. Green Beans
2 pts. Dinner Roll
3 pts. Sweet Potatoes
Total: 16

Dessert:
2.5 pts: Skim Milk with 3/4 tbsp. Chocolate Syrup
1.5 pts: Raspberries and Strawberries
Total: 4

Activity:
4 pts. Dog Walk

WPA Left: 15

 

[Amy&Dan]

Hi Jessi,

I am glad Schnitzel is doing better. That is so scary. I am glad the neighbors got rid of their dog, hopefully he's not attacking in a new neighborhood now. My aunts poodle was mauled by a German Shephard years ago, it was quite the ordeal for the dog and my aunt.

That is good your weight stayed the same. Its certainly better than the alternative of gaining (which is what I did this week ). Your food yesterday looks really good.

I mentioned that you love soda like I do. Have your tried going half and half with regular and diet? Or even 75%/25%? That is how I finally got myself off of Dr. Pepper and Coke, which I rarely have anymore. It was my addiction for years!

So are you Pinnochio in that parade float? Keep those Disney pics coming, we love to look at those!

Keep up the good work.