Week 5: New Hampshire Whoopie Pies and Self Sabotage

Photo by Flickr Artist F_A (CC)

This week I got tripped up by 2 things.

The first thing was my wife's best friend in New Hampshire mailed us a care package of goodies.  This included a bunch of her home made Whoopie Pies.  Now in case someone is unfamiliar with these concoctions I included a picture to the right. There is a fascinating history of the Whoopie Pie over on Wikipedia.  All I know for sure is that I hunted down and consumed 2 of these bad boys.

The whoopie pies in and of themselves wouldn't be that bad, but as fate would have it I accidentally sabotaged myself this week.  When shopping I came across some low fat no sugar added ice cream sandwiches.  I thought I could sub these in for the 1 point Blue Bunny Sweet Freedom Fudge Lites that I had at work the week before.  Unfortunately the ice cream sandwiches were 4 points each.  The good news is I only bought a 6 pack and not a 12 pack.  Still those 4 point wonders were at work and the only way to remove the temptation was to eat them.

When all was said and done I weighed-in this week at 267.2 lbs for a weight loss of .8 lbs, giving me a running weight loss of 13 lbs.  Bottom line, even with the unforced errors I was still able to drop my total a little this week.  I don't know about you, but I'm going to call that a win.

Week 4: Sweet & Salty

This was a good week.  I'm still experimenting with items at work to keep me from snacking.  This week in addition to last weeks list I added:

• Pimento stuffed olives - 1 serving 5 olives - 1 point
• Blue Bunny - No Sugar Added Sweet Freedom Fudge Lites - 1 Bar - 1 point
• Utz Sourdough Pretzel Nuggets - 10 pretzels - 2 points

These items satisfy my sweet and salt desires and keep me out of the junk that fills my work space.

At home my wife made some great dishes and figuring out proper portion size was a little bit of a challenge.  But I did my best and thoroughly enjoyed her cooking.

Additionally I added some new things to help me manage at home. 

• Egg, Hard Boiled - 1 egg - 2 points
• Oikos Greek Nonfat Yogurt - 5.3 oz. - 3 points
• Apples - 0 points
• Bananas - 0 points
• Tangelos - 0 points
• Salads - 0 points
• Milk, skim - 2 points per cup

These items are easy go-to items that help keep me on track with decent nutrition.

It is still early on, but so far I have been achieving my small goals such as sticking to recording everything in my food journal via my Android app.  Week 4 is complete and definitely a success.  My weight loss this week was 2 lbs. for a running total of 12.2 lbs lost.

Week 3: Have a plan & death to Shortbread

This week went well enough.  I have been experimenting with items to keep me out of the honor bar at work.  If you recall less than 10 feet from my desk is a small book shelf packed with tons of cheap goodies.  All I have to do is stand up and drop some money in the honesty pig and it is all mine.  To prevent my down fall I have been ensuring that I have items on hand to eat during my 12 hour shift.

This week I have placed in the freezer at work various Healthy Choice items to try.  This is what I have on hand this week to combat the honor bar.

• Apples - 0 points
• Bananas - 0 points
• Tangelos - 0 points
• Yoplait Light Blackberry Pomegranate yogurt - 2 points
• Snyder Pretzel Rods - 1 point each rod
• Healthy Choice - Cafe Steamers Ravioli And Chicken Marinara - 6 points
• Healthy Choice - Cafe Steamers Pineapple Chicken - 8 points
• Healthy Choice Chicken Enchilada Bake - 8 points
• Healthy Choice Roasted Chicken and Potatoes - 4 points
• Milk, skim - 2 points per cup

You can see that Weight Watchers is planting the seeds of clean eating by putting zero points on all fruits and vegetables except corn, peas, potatoes, avocados, and olives.  At least I think that represents their position.  Choosing from this list instead of grabbing a bag of chips or a Snickers bar is definitely a step in the right direction.

At home though there is an entirely different set of problems.  First off my wife is an excellent cook so when she makes Spaghetti with hot Italian sausages or Meatloaf with mash potatoes I have to do 3 things.

1. I have to be honest with myself about exactly how many points make up these dishes.
2. I have to understand exactly the portion size allotted for any given point value.
3. Stick to the portion size I identified in step 2.

As long as I am honest with myself, do a fair job determining the points per serving and do not gorge myself then I can thoroughly enjoy my wife's cooking.

Finally there was one box of Girl Scout cookies staring at me all week.  And it never blinked.  I did though.  I put the cookies to the test and this time there was no transfat (nor any Partially Hydrogenated oils).  The saturated fat and sugar were about 40% of the Thin Mints from last week.  The results were 3 points four 4 cookies.

I had 20 of them.

Live and learn, acknowledge your short comings, pick yourself back up and move on.  There are always going to be bumps in the road but as long as you manage the bumps and look forward, placing yourself back on the proper path, you should be fine.

It becomes a giant issue when you slip up and decide that it is no use that this week you failed so you may as well throw the food journal aside and treat yourself to a binge.  After-all we can always start again next week.  Starting again next week is how many of us got to the point where we are currently.  How many times have you said, I'll start on Monday?

Twenty Shortbread cookies, no big deal.  I listed them in my journal acknowledged that it wasn't the best food choice and choose to eat healthier the next day.

This is the end of Week 3 and I lost 2.6 lbs. for a total to date of 10.2 lbs.  This means that I have hit my first goal of 10 lbs.  Now I just have to do this 9 more times.

Woohoo! 1st 10lb Goal Completed!