Yahoo! Ten Pounds Down!

Well, I wasn't sure if I'd do it before the end of November. I've had yo-yo weigh-ins all month, bouncing up and down on the scale. But this morning's weigh-in was such a delight. I can now say I've lost ten pounds from my starting weight last Christmas. 

What a slow march this has been, a snail's crawl. If I'd been more disciplined all these months I might be claiming a twenty pound loss for the year. But ten is nothing to sniff at. I'll take it. And my goal for next year? Another ten, of course.


It's heartening to see that I'm eating less at meal times and being satisfied with less. I'm able to take smaller servings and most of the time resist second helpings. I'm getting more used to asking a waiter for a carton to take home what I don't eat, instead of cleaning my plate. And I'm getting past that "I want it all" stage when it comes to sweet treats. It's easier now to cut something in half and share it with someone else.


The Weight Watcher point system has been great for me. It's a little trickier counting points instead of calories, but I've put a little booklet together to use as a quick reference. Google has been a great resource to look up point values. And the other day I discovered there's only 50 calories in 25 mini marshmallows (and about 1 WW point). I've enjoyed a cup of diet hot cocoa with mini marshmallows. And one day I sat patiently in front of a candle and roasted mini marshmallows on a toothpick.That takes a lot of time!


I've also started exercising. Some days I take a walk, some days I go over to the gym. The weather has been absolutely beautiful lately for walking. I'm listening to a Grace Livingston Hill book called The Best Man on my mp3 player as I walk.

I eat more vegetables now, concentrating on high fiber choices. But actually, most all vegetables have fiber, and the more fiber in a food, the fewer Weight Watcher points it has. That translates to being able to eat mashed potatoes and corn in moderation and not feeling guilty about it.


I discovered a simple way to make acorn squash in the microwave. I cut one in half, scoop out the seeds, smear about a teaspoon of butter on the inside, and sprinkle cinnimon and a teaspoon of turbonado sugar into it. Covered in the microwave it takes only 7 minutes on high to cook, and two minutes of resting time. It scoops out very easily from the skin. Yummy!


I think I won't get on the scale again for a few days. Experience tells me the scale will bounce back up tomorrow and I'll yo-yo awhile before it settles back down to today's weight. But how exciting to see that number! I should have taken a picture of it.

Cinnamon buns and bagels

Oh the temptations that face us at our weakest moments! I love a cinnamon bun or pecan roll for breakfast with a cup of coffee, or a cheese & jalapeno bagel slathered with cream cheese. More on this later.

My weight has been down to that lowest dot on my chart only once, and since then I've teetered up and down; a pound up, a pound down, a half pound down, two pounds up. But I'm not discouraged because I can see a downward trend, even though the scale bounces around every day. I know that certain foods can shoot it upwards, like a salty piece of pizza for supper, or a taco. Salt is not my friend. Since I'm counting every point (or calorie) I put in my mouth, and I'm staying at or below the daily goals, I know those spikes are merely false readings. And that is proven when I step on the scale and it's dropped back down.

Now to the title of today's post. My hubby and I have often gone to Safeway to buy cinnamon or pecan rolls for breakfast. Bagels are another favorite. Looking at various websites, it appears that cinnamon rolls rank between 5 and 11 points, depending on their size. One web site gave them a whopping score of 18. It was for some particular restaurant, which didn't mention size but it must be an enormous roll. I'm going to estimate that the Safeway pecan rolls we like must be around 12 WW points. We usually split them, so that means I could get away with a "mere" 6 points if that's how I choose to use up my breakfast points.

Something else we like from Safeway are their cheese and jalapeno bagels. I love to split those things in half and smear them with veggie cream cheese. Bagels come in at about 6 points for the big ones, or 8 for those with cheese in the recipe. I cringed to look up cream cheese and find that it has one point per tablespoon. One little tablespoon a bagel does not satisfy. I probably put four or more tablespoons of cream cheese on my bagels if I want to do it up right.

Now, if I use the whipped cream cheese I can have two tablespoons for one point, and non fat cream cheese is even better at four tablespoons for a point. Unfortunately, I don't care for the flavor of the whipped or diet. What I might try doing is buying one of those containers of baked potato toppings and mixing it into the cream cheese.

I'd have to resign myself to eating only half the bagel, which would be 4 points. With my own dietized version of veggie cream cheese, using two tablespoons, I could probably squeak by with a total of 6 points. That's the same as half of a pecan roll.

Typing all this into a blog isn't for anyone in particular to read... it's more like thinking out loud. I doubt I have any readers, unless its by accident, and that's okay. This is just such a convenient way to keep a record of my journey, in case I ever want to look back.

I've been following the Weight Watcher point system for 10 days. It seems very promising. I wish I could splurge and attend about four months of meetings, but no-can-do. For now, I'm just happy to see that I'm able to do it on my own. If I remain faithful to it but hit a plateau and can't lose any more, I might have to scrounge around for the cash and see if I could at least attend a couple months of meetings.