Feeling Crabby

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a story about losing weight. The story was all positive and braggy. I wrote it after my first week in Weight Watchers. I had just lost 3.6 pounds. I was feeling that lightheaded cockiness that comes from slipping comfortably into a pair of jeans that usually fit so tightly they cause numbness from the neck down. I wrote about how I'm spending a worrisome amount of time in front of my bathroom mirror in my sexiest underpants doing muscle guy poses. About how my favorite position is the one they call the Crab Pose. Pretty scary, huh?

But this is a few weeks later and I hate that story. Actually there isn't much I like right now. I feel all puffy and I have no sexy underpants. My story isn't about weight loss really. Of course it couldn't be as simple as losing a few unwanted pounds (14 pounds, I hope). That is so lacking in drama. My story is about fighting for freedom.

I envy my parents in that they really had to fight for freedom. They had real enemies. Their enemies lived in foreign lands with evil rulers who did really bad things to really good people. I have me in one corner, fried chicken in the other.

But there must be something that I need to learn here. My willingness to take on the weight battle is a small part of my efforts to accept who I am and change what I can. The stuggle has amplified how complicated and conflicted that is. And how complicated and conflicted I am. I've lost a little weight. But that's not the whole enchilada.

So I'm fumbling through my escape to fat freedom which is connected to my expressive freedom which is connected to my personal freedom which is connected to my head-bone. But there are no chains to gnaw my way through. My mean left hook probably won't help me much. I think it's more a matter of easing up than of beating up.

I'm getting some help from fellow fighters Amy and Kevin who have been successful in Weight Watchers for a while. They have helped me and friends Mary and Christy get off to a pretty good start. I'll post my progress, or lack of it, right here for everyone to see and hopefully be inspired by. And I promise no crabby pictures in my underpants.

Here is some really yummy low point (the basis of the Weight Watchers diet is a point system that converts the amount of calories, fat grams and dietary fiber into an easy to understand point system) food discoveries we've made. They are mostly from Amy, she's the goddess of Weight Watchers and has all kinds of great tips.

Lunch and Dinner:



Black bean and goat cheese tacos on corn tortillas. These are so good I feel guilty when I eat them.

The original brand Garden Burgers. I eat these on low calorie bread for a yummy, filling, low point meal.

Fat Free turkey slices on low calorie bread with roasted red bell peppers and sprouts. Yum!

Amy's Kitchen Black Bean Enchiladas. Actually anything by Amy's Kitchen has been great.

Lean Cuisine. These aren't quite as good as Amy's Kitchen but they are okay. They have the points right on the box!

I bought a light cookbook and went through it and added up the points from the nutritional info that was with each recipe. It is a Williams Sonoma cookbook called Light and Fresh. I've cooked one so far and it was so good. Probably a good idea to have lots of recipes so I'm not always eating out of a box.

Snacks:

I'm a chips and salsa slave. I've found that keeping a container full of celery and cucumbers or any crunchy vegetable helps me give up the chips. I dip them in salsa for a 0 point snack.

Breakfast:

Breakfast has been tough. My favorite so far is a bowl of oat meal with a squirt of sugar free maple flavored syrup.

Eggos Fat Free Waffles. I've tried these and I'm not crazy about them but Kevin and Amy love them and they've lost lots of weight.

Toast with jelly and a banana. So how exciting is that? Try it. It's pretty good.

Desserts:

Dole brand no sugar added juice bars. These are good and have 0 points!

Blue Bunny brand "Health Smart" fudgesickles. Good and only one point.

Skinny Cows. These are ice cream sandwiches as big as your head that are somehow low in points.

Drinks:

Drink lots of water.

I drink diet Orange Slice because sometimes I have to have a soda.

I drink Amstel Lite when I want a beer. I drink red wine when I don't want beer. Lite beer has less points per ounce than wine.

Helpful websites:
Weight Watchers
Dotti's Weight Loss Zone