Lifetime member at last!

Tonight was my 6th week of WW maintenance after reaching my goal weight, and since I stayed within 2 pounds (up or down) of my goal weight at today's weigh in I became a lifetime member! (Best part of being a lifetime member= no more paying for Weight Watchers!) My final weight after maintenance was just 4/10th of a pound above my goal weight, to be a lifetimer I have to keep it within 2 pounds with a weigh in once a month. My total weight loss was 101 pounds and 7 pants sizes in 2 1/2 years. (From a size 22/24 to a 6/8...not sure how that is counted but I think it's 7 sizes.) When I weighed myself this morning I was still 2/3 of a pound too high to make lifetime so I got in a 4 mile run before the meeting and that did the trick. :) This picture is me with my Weight Watchers leader and the receptionist who has been so encouraging to me for the last year and a half or so. I plan on still attending a WW meeting every week, though I'll only weigh in once a month. :) I also had a dexascan (bone density test) today, I'll be interested to see if the weight loss, strength training and cardio I've been doing will show as improved bone density. I was told that I had osteopenia in my late 30s due to a tumor on my parathyroid that was somehow pulling the calcium out of my bones. My endocrinologist said that I had the bones of a woman in her late 50s- not a good thing to hear in your 30s. I had the parathyroid tumor removed, which improved my calcium and Vitamin D levels. This was the first dexascan after that, so I'll definitely be looking forward to the results of the dexascan in two weeks. It was funny, the lady doing the dexascan had my records from 3 years ago and she was concerned that she had the wrong file due to the big difference in the weights listed- over 100 pounds. Once I explained that it really was my file, she never quit asking me questions the whole time she was doing the dexascan, lol. I joined a local running club yesterday, mainly to get a discount on their series of beach 5K races this summer. They also offer Tuesday morning workouts (at 4:50 AM!) at the track at my old high school, so I may give that a try once I'm out of school for the summer in two weeks. Thanks for the support as I've stumbled through this maintenance phase of Weight Watchers, I hope that I'll continue to have it as I work on the "lifetime" WW part!

Food find: Lipton vanilla caramel truffle black tea

I've been fighting a nasty flu/cold/whatever it is for six days now, so not much blogging has been happening. My weigh in this week showed a 2/10ths of a pound gain, but considering that I've just gotten back to the gym this AM that's understandable. I need to be down 2.4 pounds in the next two weeks to achieve lifetime member status at Weight Watchers, and since my weigh in (two days ago) I've lost half of that so it's looking good, especially once I kick this illness to the curb. Since I've been feeling ill I've been having a lot of tea, and I found a wonderful low WW point treat. It's **almost** Starbucks worthy (at least as far as hot drinks go), for a lot fewer points. (I really doubt that there is a points-friendly replacement for the heavenly frozen caramel fraps I have from Starbucks twice a week- love those things, and I'll continue to totally plan my Thursdays and Saturdays around them, points-wise.) I've been having this Lipton vanilla caramel truffle black tea with 16 ounces of hot water and I add 1 1/2 tablespoons of International Delights Coffee House Inspirations fat free skinny caramel macchiatto coffee creamer to it and stir well (if you don't stir well the creamer settles to the bottom- not a good thing.) The tea is 0 WW points, and 1 1/2 tablespoons of the creamer is 1 WW point. It's a great treat for 1 point, give it a try!

Midweek maintenance report.....meh!

The last two days have been my most horridly "off program" days in over a year and a half, and just at the midpoint of my six weeks of maintenance....not the most opportune time to fly off the tracks. Things are getting stressful at work, and my son's freshman high school year is winding down in a hailstorm of project due dates, special events and final exam terror. I've responded to all of this by eating...a lot...of really, really bad things. In the last 48 hours I've had a mountain of chocolate covered expresso beans, banana split granola bars, chocolate chip cookies and homemade Reeses Cups the size of my fist. For reals. I have my weigh in tomorrow and I fully expect to have gained (best case scenario)a pound, most likely more. I was already over the "high end" of my maintenance range from my last weigh in so now I'll just be digging a deeper hole for my looming goal weight deadline at the end of May. I'm blogging this in the hopes that doing so will pull me out of whatever is making me screw up my hard work to lose these 101 pounds. Get back on track, stupid! :)