A Start Over and New Car

 I've decided my start date to start over AGAIN...will be tomorrow.  I've got salsa turkey cooking in the crockpot today.  Normally I'd use chicken but I had frozen turkey breast cutlets in the freezer and decided to use those instead.  Recipe is pretty simply....boneless-skinless chicken breast (or in my case turkey), a pack of taco seasoning (McCormick, store brand...any of them will do) and a jar of salsa (any brand or heat level works).  Then just let cook on low for the day.  I'll shred it later and use in tortillas for lunch this week.  I bought reduced fat cheese, reduced fat sour cream, pinto beans and lettuce to go on them as well.  I'm going to have a garden salad along with it as well as a piece of fruit.  So lunch is taken care of for at least the next 3 days.

I'm hoping to start walking a mile a day also, course today would be day one and it's raining....as long as it's not a heavy rain this evening; I'll still do it.  I also found a 10 minute standing ab video on YouTube and think I'll do that 3 days a week.  

So hopefully, I'm off to a good start.  Oh, and I'm doing the Better Balance plan on Healthi (old WW Freestyle/Blue)

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Back in July 2020 I purchased this:

A 2020 Hyundai Venue - brand new!!  It was the first year they came out.  I loved this little car, I called her Apple and we made a few trips to the beach not to mention all around town!!  Apple is still a very good car!

BUT.... over time, I wanted something a little bigger and with a few more bells and whistles.  Back in May I noticed the dealership had a used Kona (next size up) which was a year newer with about the same amount of mileage as Apple.  It had ever bell and whistle possible.  So hubby and I went to test drive.  I wasn't as impressed with the Kona as I was my Venue.  The inside seemed smaller even though it's supposedly a larger vehicle.  Plus the dealership wasn't into making any type of deal that day.  So I went home in Apple - and was extremely satisfied that I made that choice.

About a month ago I notice a used Tucson ( 2 steps up from Venue) on their website.  Same year as Apple, less mileage and the bells & whistles I wanted without a bunch of extras.  It also had a really good price.  So hubby and I headed back to the dealership again for a test drive.  We loved it....the dealership was willing to work with us this time and we walked out with STELLA....

I really hated saying goodbye to my Apple; but I couldn't resist!  Stella came as a preowned certified Hyundai....which basically means that the warranties all transferred over to me from the original owner and supposedly passed all these checkpoints.

I've had Stella two weeks now and notice that she seemed to be getting louder...then I noticed the muffler partially hanging and then we were back at the dealership.  Quite obviously someone didn't do all the checkpoints!  Fortunately, she'll be getting a new exhaust at no cost to me!!!  She's just a little loud right now.

I'm sure Apple is sitting in the dealership lot laughing.......

Another WW Shame.....

 Let's talk WW meetings shall we....

A lot of people are saying that only those lifetimers at goal (LTG) near a meeting got the email that they must weigh in this month instead of February 2024; if that is so, WW has a weird way of determing what is close and it also seems to not be entirely true.

Please don't assume that those complaining are doing so because they don't want to travel an additional 10 minutes or they don't want to weigh in because they've gained weight.  Nothing is further from the truth.

I'm a lifetimer not at goal (LTNG), this didn't affect me; but it did affect a lot members that I know from many groups online.  The point is....WW sent them an email stating that due to your loyalty, we're going to do this for you and then turned around and took it away.  Has nothing to do with travel distance or weight, it has to do with WW lying.

That's the point, you can argue it how you want; but the point doesn't change.

Now, what has happened is that if you need to weigh in, where do you do it at since WW closed most of the meetings????  Some will have to travel an hour or more to get to the meeting (yep, WW considers that a reasonable distance); some may have to pay tolls to get to a meeting a distance away (and the toll is more than the meeting cost) and some may have meetings close by but the times are during work hours.  WHAT ARE YOU TO DO???

I wish I could answer that question for you.  Your best option at this point is to issue a complaint to WW.

If this affected me, I'd be in the same dilemna.

Prior to covid, there were three WW meeting location within my area.  One was in my hometown, I went to that one on occasion mostly during the winter so I didn't have to travel in bad weather.  This meeting was HUGE and was held at a church.  I was rather surprised that after covid, it never reopened.

The next one was in a town about 25 miles away.  This was my preferred meeting.  It started as a center at a mall, moved to a hotel than to a church.  After covid it reopened at the hotel before moving back to the church.  Unfortunately the evening meeting changed its time from 6:00 to 5:30 making it too difficult to get to from work.

The other meeting was in my work town about 25 miles away from home (in the opposite direction from the meeting at my preferred location).  They use to have a really nice center and in a pinch I could run over at lunch and at least weigh in.  After covid, the center closed and they reopened in a hotel with no evening meetings and only one meeting at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday (a day I'm not over there).

See the dilemna I have as someone that works?  

It's like WW thinks we're all stay at home women.....how 1950's is that?

Shame on you WW!!

WW Give a Kick to their Lifetime Members at Goal

 A few months back, WW sent an email to Lifetimers at goal saying because of their loyalty they were extended all their memberships until February 2024.  Though they encouraged members to continue meetings and weigh ins, they would not need to worry about weigh ins until February 2024.  A quick check showed the next billing date was February 2024.

This week WW sent an email to Lifetimers at goal saying the upgrades were complete and they now decided to that next weigh ins need done by August 31, 2023 or  you'd be charged.

Yeah, they took back the gift for loyalty.  And yep, that's how it happened!

Bad business decision.

Shame on you Weight Watchers.

Most can't weigh in because there are no close meetings or no meeting times convenient for working individuals.

Shame on you Weight Watchers.

 I've been moving forward pretty good this time around.  I managed a 1 mile walk on Sunday and Monday's meals were:

At top is a 3 point yogurt bowl for breakfast and the bottom was lunch which was a chili lime chicken skewer with mixed veggies and white rice with a tsp of teriyaki sauce.  The breakfast was great but the lunch was rather bland, tasteless and dry.   

Tuesday's:

Top photo is the same yogurt bowl though this time I took the photo before stirring it all together and lunch came from a local shop - grilled chicken breast and watermelon.  Both were very good!

I make the yogurt bowl by taking 1 single serve container of non-fat greek yogurt, 1/4 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1 tbsp of sugar free pudding mix, 1/2 tbsp of PB2, 1/4 cup of chocolate peanut butter cheerios and 1/2 of a Fiber One 70 calorie brownie (apparently hubby ate all the chocolate ones, so I had to use another flavor).

Oh in case you are wondering, the points are for the current personal points plan (not a past one).

When it comes to lunch, I do much better with something fresh.  Sometimes I can do leftovers from dinner the night before, but it depends on what it is.  I'm beginning to think I may need a small crock pot or something to use here at work or cook something fresh in the toaster oven.  I did prepare for today's lunch though...when I picked up Tuesday's lunch, I grabbed some cantaloupe and chicken corn soup - YUM!!

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I started the above a day ago, so needed to update for today!!!  I had a smoothie today for breakfast, sorry forgot to take a photo!!  Lunch was my soup and cantaloupe:

It was so very good and I was starving by the time I got to have it!!  Our cat Rooker had an ingrown nail and I  needed to leave work, pick him up, back to the vet, back home to drop him off and then back to work....  ANYWAY, he's fine and for dinner this evening hubby and I made BLT's with the tomatoes our neighbor gave us and I had corn on the cob and watermelon with mine and he had macaroni & cheese with his.  It was a very good dinner!

I'm thinking maybe an egg sandwich with some strawberries for breakfast tomorrow.  Unsure about lunch; I just prefer outside food 😛; so it just will come down to making better choices at wherever I end up at!  It's important to prepare for that type of thing.  I could stop at the store on my way to work and get the fully cooked bacon and make a BLT for lunch along side my leftover watermelon and some cucumber....  yep, I think that will be the plan!!

Back From Vacation and Ready To Do It!!

 I was on vacation last week in South Carolina - I love it there, but the drive not so much!  The drive can be anywhere from 9 to 12 hours!!!  A lot depends on traffic, accidents, construction and the route you choose.  Coming back was a 12 hour one - I was never so happy to see Interstate 81 in my life, lol!!

Anyway, while I was on vacation, someone in one of the various WW groups on FB posted that WW was starting a Reset Challenge and if you PM'd them on Instagram (you could also do it on FB), they'd add you and send you a code for a free WW Scale - the new one that connects to your app automatically via bluetooth and costs regularly $50:

WW Bluetooth Smart Scale

That actually is a really good deal!  EXCEPT.... I already have the scale, but I was interested in the Challenge.  I sent WW a pm via their FB page and told them I already had the scale but was interested in the challenge.  They immediately answered back that they would add me to the challenge AND sent me a code for the scale anyway, telling me to give it to a friend!  How awesome is that??!!  My sister does WW via the mobile app, so I'm passing it off to her.  The scale actually arrived within 2 days!

The challenge?  There's a group (I assume private) on WW Connect and each week they challenge you to do a habit.  This week is "Tracking".  A new topic gets posted each Monday; my start over day is Friday so I'm running a week behind.  Despite my first 2 days were still vacation days...I tracked anyway, even though it was bad.  Starting out today a little bit better.

I don't know if you can still get this deal, but it's always worth a try.  Even if you don't get the scale, they may add you to the group.  Never hurts to ask!

Moving Forward.....

The Zero List

Above is the zero list of foods.  You're daily points are lower to accommodate the eating of these foods.

I eat absolutely no Tofu or Tempeh.  Yogurt, Cottage Cheese, Beans and Lentils are occasionally eaten but not on a regular basis.  Fish and shellfish I do love to eat, but that's not a daily or even a weekly thing.  I can eat A LOT of popcorn.

This is where zero points fail..... I don't have points to eat the things I do eat regularly (and I'm not talking unhealthy things) but I have zero foods that I either don't eat or not regularly.  And gosh, they gave me a zero that I can eat a whole lot of!!!

I've decided to experiment.  I went into the Food Settings on the WW app and changed the Current Focus to maintain weight.  That upped my dailies from 23 to 29; I upped them 1 more point.  So I sat my dailies at 30.  Why?  Well I thought I deserved some points back since I don't eat everything on the zero list.  I also decided since popcorn can be a trigger food for me, I needed to count points for that.  I'm just going to give it a try and see how it goes. Can't hurt right?

Some people are choosing to switch to the diabetic plan - which is fine.  On that plan I would get 29 dailies and lose fruits as a zero.  Please keep that in mind.  The only zero foods you will lose on the diabetic plan is the fruit, corn & popcorn - all those others will remain the same.

Though choosing your own zero foods wasn't my favorite plan, I now do understand it a little better than I did back then.  You lose points to accommodate the zeros; if it's something you don't eat - that can hurt you point wise; rarely eat? well....the points will cover it.  I now wish I had the option to choose my own.

Sigh......

 

Meal Planning Update

 So the Taco Lasagna I made for lunch this week is a hit!!  Even hubby liked it!

The changes I made...

I used a 7x9 baking dish instead of a 9x9 as that's what I had, used plain diced tomatoes as I don't like peppers and I only used 8 tortillas (2 each layer worked perfectly) and I cut mine into 6 pieces at 8 pts a slice.   Note:  If you use the link at the website that pulls the recipe into WW - look at the ingredients, when I did that the tortillas weren't listed at all, which means the point value cannot be right.  Always double check website recipes.

I've made the Protein Baked Oatmeal before and really like it.  I cut it into 4 pieces at 6 pts a slice.  Heat it up in the microwave before eating and it is delicious!!  I didn't use 200 chocolate chips though as I didn't have the Lily's mini ones.  So I used 66 regular size Lily's and I just put them across the top before baking:

I hope the chicken casserole for tomorrow's dinner comes out as good as both of these did!!

NEW START DATE!!

 I decided to make May 1, 2023 my new start over date.  New month and being on a Monday may help me to keep the weekends in check!!

Oh...I am going back to Carb Conscious - I must be crazy - none of those zero point plans ever worked for me!

I'm Still Here!!

I'm still here, totally off plan but still moving forward.

I've been doing training to become an instructor to certify and re-certify people at work for a program we use that requires certification to use it.  Final class is Thursday where I'm to give my presentation on the area assigned to me.  I've been stressed to say the least!  I was fortunate that group one presented last week, so that gave group 2 an up as to what to expect, lol!!  There's no test, just a presentation and then I have to instruct 2 classes with a certified instructor (co-worker) and then I can do them on my own. Whew!

But I know I need to get back on track and I decided that Friday is a good starting day! One, because my class will be over and I won't have to worry about that; and Two, I like Fridays to be my start of the week. There's also the fact that my weekend buddy CC will be out of town and I won't have to worry about the eating out and movie food, lol!!  I can get one consistent eating week in place.

I've decided to try to keep it as simple as possible to start.  Most likely yogurt bowls for breakfast and a "trip around the kitchen" for lunch.  

 In my younger days, the local bars use to have something called "A Trip Around The Kitchen".

Basically it was a snack tray with things in the kitchen that could just be grabbed and didn't need cooked.  For the most part you could expect some type of bologna, cheese and pickles along with whatever else they felt like they could throw on it (pretzels, chips, crackers).  It was a nice thing to have with drinks.

Mine will be much healthier of course - babybel cheese, mini club cracker or mini pretzels, fruit, raw veggie, pickles and a protein.  Here's one I've had before:

I want to try to keep the majority of my points for dinner.

I'm going to switch to Better Balance (old blue plan) on Healthi.  Why?  I'm just struggling counting points for foods that I've been trained to count as zero - does that make sense?

So my tries beginning Friday:

1.  Keep it simple.

2.  Drink six 8 oz serving of water a day.

3.  Track everything.

4.  Walk 1 mile a day.

I'm going to try to do that for 1 week to start and move on from there!  Small Steps.

Time For The Reboot

You probably think I reboot and never follow through at all!  I was going to start the blog all over AGAIN...but decided to just continue on as is; HOWEVER, I do need to list those TRIES again:

My Tries:

I will try to track all my meals.

I will try to drink six 8 oz glasses of water a day.

I will try to do a one mile walk a day.

I will try to update the blog more regularly.

I will try not to beat myself up if I fail in a try.

I normally don't beat myself up or consider it a fail....just thought I'd throw that in there! 😋

I have started to track this week and have been a little better at choosing my meals; I'm a work in process and decided to make my new start day Friday, March 17, 2023.  Yep, St. Patrick's Day!!

Saturday Weight Loss Tips