Week 21

PJ Weight:  161.0
Week Loss:  -0.6
Cumulative Loss: -30.6

Seth Weight: 173.6
Week Loss: -2.0
Cumulative Loss: -25.5

Seth finally got past the 25 pound mark today.  He's been more or less stuck for the last month, but this week:  BOOM, he dropped 2 pounds.  Go Seth!!

The big excitement for me this week was that last night I tried on a pair of my size 10's and they more-or-less fit.  They're still too tight for me to consider wearing out and about, but they close without a lot of effort and I don't feel like the front button is likely to detach at a speed high enough to put out the eye of some unfortunate bystander.  PROGRESS: I AM MAKING IT.

My weekly losses have slowed a lot recently.  Part of it is just that I'm sick of dieting, but part of it also is probably due to the fact that I'm slowly working my way toward stopping breastfeeding.  As I reduce the amount of milk I make, I need to cut back on the amount I eat.  That's been rough.

(And this is kind of an aside for a diet blog, but it's my diet blog, so NYAH.  I don't have any idea if any other moms feel this way, but I've been having a really rough time with getting myself to stop nursing this time around.  I guess it's because unless the unexpected happens, Raven's my last baby, so this will be the last time I'm going to be doing this.  It's been very emotionally difficult for me.  I mean, I don't really enjoy making milk, but the concept of stopping now has become pretty painful.  Enough that I tear up thinking about it kind of painful.  Even though I can  acknowledge that there are probably hormones at work here, they're not easy to ignore.)

But anyway, we're doing well.  We just have to keep on and not completely fall off of our wagon this coming Monday what with the piles of delicious candy that will be strewn about the house.  We'll set ourselves aside a few pieces each.  Then we'll see how well we can stick to that.

Right.

Wish us luck & Happy Halloween everybody.

Week 20

PJ Weight: 161.6
PJ Week Gain:  +0.4
PJ Cumulative Loss: 30.0

Seth Weight:   175.6
Seth Week Loss:  -0.2
Seth Cumulative Loss:  23.5

Well, that was a depressing weigh in.

I'm not completely demoralized by the small gain, though.  Last week I was shocked to see a 2 pound loss.  I think the scale might have had a hiccup last week, even though I weighed myself a couple times.  I wasn't all that good the week before I had that loss, and I was relatively on track this week, so I'll call it an average of 0.8 loss per week over the two weeks, which was about what I was averaging previously.  That sounds MUCH better than a 0.4 gain, so we're going with that.

I had a delicious Indian buffet lunch with Seth on Tuesday, which probably didn't help the scale number this morning either.

In any event, my sights are still set on the 150's, so I'll try to keep my spirits and motivation up this coming week.

December 1st is looming up on the horizon - just 6 weeks until we start our exercise program.  We've pretty much decided to try Power 90,  from a company called Team Beachbody.  I've heard good things about the program's big brother P90X, but Seth & I aren't up for anything that intense.   As programs go, Power 90 appears to be the right level of challenge for us.

Well that's all the news for this week.  Here's hoping for better results this time around!

Week 19: The 30 Pound Mark

PJ Weight:   161.2
PJ Week Loss: 2.0
PJ Cumulative Loss: 30.4

Seth Weight:   175.8
Seth Week Loss:  0.4
Seth Cumulative Loss: 23.3

Another milestone this week: 30 pounds!  YAY!

I got Seth's consent to start including his results both to help keep him motivated and because I'm really REALLY proud of how well he's doing.  He's 16.8 pounds from his lightest (pre-marital) weight of 159 pounds.  Go Seth!!

I have somewhat farther to go.  My lightest was 140, and that leaves me 21.2 to go if I want to see that figure again. (Double meaning!  Figure!  Ha!  Look!  I'm clever!  Moving on.)  We'll see if I get there.

I picked up a cheap pair of jeans this past week because my old ones were quite literally falling off.  The new ones are size 12 and fit reasonably well, but I wasn't all that choosy since I will hopefully not be wearing them for very long.  I just needed an 'in between' pair to get me through until I can get into my size 10's.

Funny, that.  I could have sworn I had a whole pile of size 12 pants lying about in a bin somewhere, but I've searched every closet and bin in the house to no avail.  Size 10's - bunches.  Size 8's - oodles.  No 12's, though.

I suppose that means I just have to lose some more inches.

I've got to say, though, having 2 babies really does change the shape of your body.  When I was last this weight, there was a lot less tummy to squeeze into my pants.  I also used to have these contraptions called abdominal muscles to hold it back.  (Now, where did those get to?)  I have to wonder if the 10's will ever really fit properly.

Hopefully the exercise program starting in December will help with the sad lack of abdominal musculature.  At this point I'm somewhat surprised I haven't been recruited for Pillsbury ads.  Tee-hee.

In any case, I'm going to be pretty motivated this week to see if I can break into the 150's by next week.  Recently the weekly losses haven't been that great, but this week I pulled off a 2 pound loss.  If I can do it again, Goodbye 160's, Hello 150's.  Oh wait.  That means I lose another Weight Watchers point.

Damn.

On that depressing note, I take my leave. Wish me willpower!

Week 18

Weight:                   163.2
Week Loss:                  0.8
Cumulative Loss:  28.4

This week was another week of less than amazing weight loss, but it's still a loss, and I got through my birthday dinner and Carvel ice cream cake without gaining weight.  That's cause for celebration as far as the diet is concerned.

Our combined weight loss is now 51.3 pounds, so hooray for hitting the 50 pound mark.

I don't have much more to say this time around.  My friend's mother passed away this week, and much of our attention and energy has gone to worrying for him and his family.  I don't have much left in me for dwelling on the minutiae of weight loss.

Week 17

Weight: 164.0
Week Loss: 0.4
Cumulative Loss: 27.6

Cumulative Team Mintz Loss:  49.9  (So close!)

Whoops.  I almost forgot to blog today.  I remembered to weigh in this morning, but I rushed out the door and thought "I'll post later".  Well - 10PM is later.

To be fair, I spent all day devising a "what's next for the diet" plan.  Namely: Exercise.

Starting December 1st, our halfway point, we'll be starting Some Kind of Exercise Program.  I started looking into the Team Beachbody DVD programs, which I've heard about from multiple people.  So far I've not learned enough to decide conclusively for or against any of their programs, so I'll leave that debate for another blog.

For now I'll simply put the question out there: If you have a particular workout program that you enjoy, can be done at home with a minimum of equipment, and is relatively low-impact (for those of us whose anatomies don't agree with the jarring impacts of running and jumping) do recommend it to me - either by comment here (if they're working... evidently they weren't a week or two ago) or by email or facebook message.

Well, that's all for this week.  Hopefully after a week of research I'll have more to report.

Week 16

Weight        164.4
Week loss         0.4
Cumulative loss      27.2

I was honestly expecting a gain this week, and I'm awfully surprised I didn't see one.  I was up a pound and change just the other day.

This week was definitely the hardest yet for me, and it wasn't because of anything in particular.  My friend Nicole had a baby shower with some awesome food, but I didn't go hog wild there - I just ate a little more than I should have.  I made a bigger breakfast that morning than I should have with pancakes and turkey bacon.  And we decided to go out for dinner on Friday.  And Sunday.  And I had a little pasta with dinner on Friday and a slice of bread... and ordered the fried veal in lemon/butter/white wine sauce.  And we had fast-food-ish personal pizzas at the Bronx Zoo for lunch on Sunday.  And dinner on Sunday was Applebees (but I didn't have fries!).  And lunch on Tuesday was chicken tikka masala... mmm.

The point is that any one of these things, or even any two or three of these things wouldn't have necessarily made for a bad week.  It's just that I did them all together - which DOES make for a bad week, or at least a less-than-stellar week.

The frustrating thing is that I was trying to be reasonably good, but at the same time I'm more than a little sick of constantly watching what I eat.  So while I didn't have dessert at the baby shower, I did have seconds of lunch. While I kept myself to 2 small slices of awesome bread at the italian restaurant, I ate the pasta side dish.  While I didn't have fries at Applebees, I did have a roll-up sandwich that had cheese on it, and for that matter, so did my chili.

I suppose I'll chalk this up to just having a bad week and put it behind me, and hopefully I'll be more motivated this week.

Week 15: A Pancake Recipe

Weight:                    164.8
Week Loss:               1.8
Cumulative Loss:  26.8

Seth's down 20.7 pounds, so he's hit a milestone this week.  (Again... stupid new scale.)  That takes the Team Mintz total to 47.5 pounds.  Only 2.5 pounds to go to the 50-pound mark!

Most of the key to our success has been a drastic reduction in our restaurant dining, and a corresponding increase in what we cook at home.  So this week, I thought I'd post my reduced fat banana pancake recipe I've been tinkering with for the past few months.

The recipe started as a regular old pancake recipe, and I've been modifying it as I go along trying to make it as tasty as I can with as few calories / fat.  Now, what the exact counts are I'm not exactly sure, but it makes around 10 palm-sized pancakes, and I usually give them 2-3 weight watchers points each, if it matters to anyone.

It should be mentioned, the texture of these is kind of rubbery, since most of the moisture in them comes from banana instead of butter.    They're still mighty tasty though, and healthy.  And the quality of the end result is VERY dependent on using a very ripe, soft and sweet banana.

And now, the recipe:

1 medium-large soft ripe banana
3/4 cup flour
1 rounded tsp baking powder
1-2 tsp white sugar (depends how sweet you like your pancakes... for some the banana might be enough)
1-2 tsp butter
1 Tbsp egg white
1/2 c. skim milk (we use Skim Plus. it works pretty well.)
Splash of vanilla extract... (maybe a 1/4 tsp? I just drizzle a little in.)

Mash up the banana with a fork in a mixing bowl, and then use a hand mixer to liquify it.
Melt the butter in the microwave, add it to the bowl, along with the milk, the egg white, and the vanilla - mix with the hand mixer.
Add the baking soda and sugar, Mix.
Add the flour.  Mix well.
We have a 2-cup measuring cup that works well for pouring.  Put all of your batter into something that pours well, heat up a pan or griddle and plop some palm sized pancakes on there.  Use your favorite method to keep them from sticking to the pan.  Keep a close eye on them while they're cooking, so they don't burn.

I suggest serving them with some ripe strawberries.  A quart of strawberries plus these pancakes is usually a good portion-controlled breakfast for Seth, Jade and myself.

If anyone makes them, let me know what you think. :-)

That's all for this week folks.