Milestones

I was going to post sooner but of course I was a little side tracked. Excuses, excuses.



I made a delicious soup, consisting mostly of vegetables- tomatoes, green peppers, and onions mostly. I was trying to get it to taste like stuffed peppers but sort of a soup version. I added meatballs made of lean ground turkey, rice, and spinach. The spinach is just a little added bonus. It doesn't taste like anything but it adds nutrients and some fun color to the meatballs. I ate the soup for the first two days with the vegetables chopped up as they were, but then after that I got tired of the texture so I put all but the meatballs in the blender to make a smoother soup. Not only am I counting points, but also counting my nickels and dimes too. What I've been doing is make something that would normally feed a family for one meal, but portion it out into containers and eat it for 2 meals a day until it's gone. I generally perfer more variety but hey I'm living by me means for now. I did the same thing a few days ago by cooking beans in the crock pot all day, then making them into tasty refried beans and eating it with rice. Those two together are a complete protein, and the beans are a complex carbohydrate.

A few weeks ago I was all excited because I bought work pants that were from the regular section, not the plus size section. That was pretty great, but those pants were the drawstring-elastic waist kind. This week I bought jeans from Target that are a size 20. I can't believe they actually fit. I haven't been able to fit into a 20 since my freshman year of college. I even joked with my roommate "Look! I now have jeans without a sagging butt!" I've been wearing them a lot, and now I'm almost afraid to wash them for fear of shrinkage. I think I might take them out of the dryer while they're still damp and let them finish drying hanging up.

Another big milestone that occurred this week was that I reached my goal of losing 10% of my body weight. That means I'm down 32 pounds. That's not this week's official number because I haven't weighed at home yet, but at the doctor's office with all my clothes on that was my weight. I wonder what the final number will be on Sunday. I've been feeling really great, and I have more energy than before. I also have more confidence. I won't lie- I kind of like the attention that I'm getting for a noticeable difference in size, but I think that is constructive, because it's like cheering me on towards my goal. Speaking of goals, I haven't decided what my goal weight will be, but I think once I hit 220, (-100 pounds) I will re-evaluate what I want and what is a reasonable weight for me to maintain.

Today I baked a TON of cookies. I made five different kinds of cookie dough and baked three of them. I think I made about 15 dozen cookies in all. I made little treat bags for my co-workers because tonight is the Christmas party for my group home job. I also baked cookies for the Women's brunch today, including three treat bags for the expecting moms that we are celebrating. (I love the added touch of the jingle bell!) I even made peanut butter kiss cookies to serve at the Women's brunch but also made enough to give to my dad and brother. I DO have willpower though- I've only had two bites of cookie. They were great.


One last thing- the Weight Watchers Points system changed on the Monday after Thanksgiving into the PointsPlus system. I think I like the change. It now takes into account protein and carbohydrates as well as fat and fiber. Also, all fruits and vegetables are now zero PointsPlus. That's pretty great. I now get to use 48 PointsPlus per day, and 49 per week. As you probably guessed, foods are worth more PointsPlus now than they were just Points. For the sake of simplicity, I'm still going to refer to PointsPlus as plain old points.