Weight Watchers lessons

I have been on the Weight Watchers program for over a month now and it has been rather eye opening. I would like to say that I have seen a lot of progress, but I have only lost 2.5 pounds so far. I will say that I am think that I am finally getting a hang of it, but I think that the learning curve would not have been as slow if I was going to weekly meetings instead of just doing the program online (it is less expensive that way).

LIQUIDS

I knew beforehand that I was ingesting too many calories via liquids and boy does this program make that SUPER CLEAR. The Starbucks Via packets of Cafe Mocha are 7 or 8 points which is almost a third of my daily points for the day! Uhhh no. I am now pairing black coffee with a 2 point flavored creamer which is still delicious and allows me to eat real food instead of air. Although if I was really eating air then maybe I would have lost more weight? 

I have essentially cut out all soda, even though a Coke Zero would be 0 points. We don't have it in the house at home anymore and I haven't been that tempted to get it when eating out, so that's been great. A definite plus. 

I have mostly been drinking water, coffee with creamer, and some tea for some caffeine. It has been a month or so of testing and trying new things to see what I like/don't like. Two things that I found I didn't like? The Weight Watchers flavor packets for coffee. It's too bad because they are only 1 point, but they were TERRIBLE. I also have decided that I don't like powder creamers, I only like the liquid ones. 

FOOD
Because I am doing the online program only, I also joined a local weight watchers FB group and the women in that group have been helpful in recommending different lower point foods in lieu of things that I had been eating. For instance, I have swapped out zucchini noodles for pasta and they have been great! Yesterday for lunch I ate sauteed zucchini noodles with rotisserie chicken on top and 1/4 cup of store-bought alfredo sauce- the whole lunch was only 4 points (it would have been less if I had used the rotisserie chicken breast but the kids ate it earlier in the week). Today I tried riced cauliflower in lieu of rice and it tasted great when I put a sauce on top. 

As I start to learn more about swaps and as I get better about bringing 0 point foods to snack on while I am at work, I hope to start to drop more weight. My go-to snacks tend to be sugar snap peas, apples, bananas, and grapes.

ACTIVITY

I could absolutely be doing better in this regard and it would help with increasing my weight loss. I don't know what is going on because the days are getting longer, but I am EXHAUSTED ALL THE TIME these days. Just thinking about getting up to work out at 5am while CP is in the shower makes me tired. Plus I still have my heel pain that won't seem to go away (which means no running). I MUST DO BETTER.

POINTS

Some people in the online community eat all of their daily points and then throughout the week eat all of their weekly points AND most/all of their fit points. So I have been doing that since people were saying that it was working. However, this week I have switched it up since I not losing that much and I will (hopefully) just be eating my weekly points. Fingers crossed it makes a difference!

I do think that I am steering the ship in the right direction after losing my way for a while. Come on weight loss!

Guns

I'm fed up. Frankly, I was fed up long ago when Congress refused to do anything after Sandy Hook. I really thought that something was going to get done back in 2012 and yet Republicans bought off by the NRA sat on their hands and did nothing. So like many other people, I was pissed but resigned to the fact that this is our culture and there is nothing I can do about it.

That has continued for years now. More recently I have continued to be pissed off, but have been more inclined to DO SOMETHING. I contacted my elected officials after Las Vegas to urge them to take up a ban on bump stocks- nothing has happened. This past week I got a text for a movie viewing and then discussion but unfortunately CP has something that night so I can't go. Then last night, after the horrific shooting in FL, I saw a post on a local Mom's Facebook group that I belong to for Moms Demand Action (part of Everytown), looked up if there were any events in my area and sure enough, there is a meeting next Thursday night of a local chapter. I put out a call on Facebook for friends to join me and as of right now, I have three other women joining me.

There is also a march in downtown Chicago being put on by Indivisible on Sunday that I hope to attend in order to show more support for our elected officials to DO SOMETHING. I'm hoping CP is willing to take the kids for a few hours while I go to the march.

FUCK THE NRA. It's time to fucking DO SOMETHING and you know what? Women are going to lead the charge and I am going to help to get something done.

Do you want to DO SOMETHING too? 

1. Call your elected officials to tell them they need to pass some legislation. 
2. Visit the Moms Demand Action link above to find a group in your area.
3. Do some Google searching to see if there will be a march this weekend in your area around gun legislation.

Groups like Everytown are making a difference in states around the country. I truly believe that now is the time to get involved and get riled up about this issue. Voting in November for elected officials that support gun regulations is KEY.

19 months

19 months

Height- He was 2' 9" (65%) on February 1st.

Weight- 30 pounds (97%) on February 1st.

Diapers- Size 5 diapers during the day, Size 6 nighttime diapers. He sometimes wets through his Size 6 so we try to give him some time to pee out his dinner milk before putting him to bed.

My cutie Valentine

Milestones- Wes climbs up the stairs using the banister these days. His climbing skills for getting up on beds, chairs, and couches are also getting much better. Lately Wes has been pointing at various things and I will say the color, but I don't think that he is close to saying them on his own.

Wes has also started to perfect his pouty face. It's pretty amazing.

Mr. Pout

Language- Words so far- mama, uh oh, choo choo, duck, malk (milk), more, nana (banana), down, and ball...along with tons of animal noises. New words this month- shoe, Elmo, owl, no, book, moon, ranj (orange), boo (blue), iz-she (Izzy), and finally dada. He also quickly caught on to Cocoa's name...I think that it will take a while for him to say Marshmallow's name. I would bet that he is pretty close to a word explosion soon with all of his new words this month.

As far as sign language goes, Wes uses the following signs: all done, more, eat, help, milk, and thank you- a lot of times he will say either more or milk while he does the sign.

Bad hair day

Favorite Toy- His bean bag from Christmas. Izzy and Wes have nightly "races" and run from the kitchen to the family room to then jump on their bean bags. It's pretty funny (and clearly shows that they have extra energy because it is too cold to go outside!).

Enjoying our big snowstorm

Favorite Book- Brown Bear, Brown Bear is still a big favorite. He likes to make a lot of the animal noises.

Sleep- Wes is a great sleeper from about 7:30pm to 7 or 8am. He is down to one nap a day, generally starting around 12:30 and lasting for about two hours.

Sledding!

Clothes- Solidly in 2T clothing. Size 7 shoes.

Eating- Wes continues to throw things at us (food, utensils, etc) as soon as he is done with his meal. The phase is lasting longer that we would like (although he has a great arm). Some meals he decides to only eat fruit, some meals he puts down a ridiculous amount of food (it usually involves pasta).

Trying on Izzy's swim goggles

Teeth- No new teeth this past month.

Illness- An ear infection. It looks like one of his ear tubes is trying to escape- we'll find out next week at the follow up with his ENT doctor. I really don't want him to have the surgery again, but it's been nice to not have him on any oral antibiotics for a while (even though he is excellent at taking medicine and very willing to do so).

Misc- This month was the first time Wes was on an airplane and in CA. It was his first visit to Disneyland. The first time Wes pet a goat.

So far Wes has been great with the cats. He has been giving them gentle pets and gets excited in the morning if they are outside his room when I wake him up for school.