On the other hand - if 40 points is around 2000 calories, it really isn't so bad as it seems.

I did an awful thing! I was bored this afternoon. So I decided that I would make a batch of chocolate chip cookies. I ate about 2 cookies worth of dough. Then, I polished off about 5 cookies. @$%$!!!! I am so disappointed in myself. I called a friend to see if she could go for a bike ride after 9pm. Her kids go to bed way late, so I knew that was even pushing it. She can't. I am too chicken to go by myself. I am going to try my hardest to get in 45 minutes of cardio before my workout with the trainer tomorrow. Hopefully that will help. I did so well up until this afternoon. Oh well. Bite it, write it, and move on.

It is getting very hot out here already. I live in Chandler (15 minutes from Phoenix). Today our high was straight up 100 degrees. I am not at all complaining. I love the summer. We spent the afternoon at a friends house on the slip n slide. I came home and hand watered some of the brown spots in the front lawn. We have golf course grass in the front and back. It looks great this time of year. I am just trying to help along the bad spots. Only thing about the heat is that it zaps the energy from ya. My kids are so tired. All I want to do is go go go. I just keep them hydrated and put them to bed right at 8pm. Working out ok so far. Will help when we can start to sleep in in a week and a half.

Oh yeah, I have to tell about dinner. I had 1 small pork chop 4pts,
salad 1pt
roasted potatoes 3pts
lima beans (didn't look them up, but I think 1pt).

Liz, I have to ask you...........what is the weather like for you right now? I don't mean to sound dumb, but are you in an area that stays dark for long periods of time? I am so curious. I was born and raised here in Arizona. Would love to go on an Alaska cruise some day. I may be in my 50s though.

Gonna run for now. Morrigan, you have inspired me to total my points on a daily basis on here. I do in my tracker during the week. I know if I stick to it on weekends, I will do better. Things are much uglier or prettier in black and white. :smug:

Buffalo, Alaska is funny daylight wise. In the winter it's dark the majority of the time and in the summer it's daylight 24/7. No kidding!

We had beautiful weather today. Low 60's and sunny.

Weigh in day - and the scale was on the high side of it's flip-flop this morning. I really wish I had held it together over the weekend. I have been falling back into eating the kids leftovers mode.

Breakfast: A cup of coffee with a splash of milk, but I brought a good lunch to eat after weigh-in.
Lunch: hummus (2), chicken (4), salad (0)

Woohoo - down 2 lbs this week

Dinner: Salad (0), chicken (4), wine (2)

12 points so far today - at least I will be able to justify an evening snack.

Dinner: #2 Chicken Soup (4), 1/2 avocado (4)

Snack: Cereal with Milk (4)

24 point day

Well, so far so good. I have managed to stay away from the cookies this am. It is funny. That was a huge downfall I had before ww. I would not eat breakfast unless we had some sweet bakery item around. I would make a meal out of 5 cookies with coffee in the morning. As I type here this morning, I am eating my bowl of oatmeal. :) Yea for me!! I need to keep it together for my weigh in on Tuesday. Morrigan, you've got it rough with weigh in on Mondays. No time to recover from the weekend. Not that any of us should really need a recover time, but let's be real. Isn't that when most of us use the flex points? Don't know what I am doing for lunch or dinner. Dinner has to be a quickie again. Daughter has her LAST dance class. Again, yea for me!!!! Tee ball will be over this Thursday. We are having a pizza party and then that is it. Summer is almost here. Phew! I will be in Mexico for 9 days in June. I leave on the 2nd. So, I will be MIA for that time. I won't have access to a computer then. :( It is gonna kill me. I will have to make up for it with some beach time. That always puts me in a good mood. Anyway, will update after a meal or two. Have a great day!!!

Alright, so my new commitment is to put a total at the end of all of my days and maybe explain a bit more. So, here goes today........

Breakfast
oatmeal 3pts 3/3

Snack?
2 small cookies :( 3pts 3/6

Exercise
30 minutes elliptical add 2pts
30 minutes w/trainer:dizzy: add 4pts
10 minutes on treadmill not adding any

Lunch
took lrg can chicken added 4Tbs reduced fat mayo and some mustard.
ate 1/3 of the can 3pts 3/9
on ak mak crackers 2pts 2/11
1 wedge laughing cow chs 1pt 1/12

My plan with the extra 6 activity points is to use them IF I need them. And no, this does not mean cookies. In fact, I took a bag full over to my sister after I ate the two this morning.

After adding my activity points, I have 18 points left for the day. Dang! That is huge. Cross your fingers for me that I don't use them all. I need to work some veggies in.

I am excited. Now that my son is done with preschool for the year, I can actually get in some classes at my gym. I used to do cycle classes last summer. I do my first one in a long time tomorrow. That is an hour of high intensity. OOOOooooooooooooo! It is gonna hurt. I would also like to get in one yoga class a week. I won't count any activity points for that even though it is light activity. I like it for my mind more than anything else. If it helps my body that is a bonus.

Feeling good today ladies. Hope you are all too.

I am headed to Mexico in June also, but not leaving till the 17th. This is immediatly followed by a week in Seattle at a conference, and then a road trip and home for the 4th of July.

I am going to be back to a paper and pencil journal with that much time away.

Not much going on today. Went shopping for some new clothes that fit, because even last years summer clothes are a little big. I actually bought two tank tops! I haven't worn a tank top since before my daughter was born (she's 6yo)! I still don't think my arms look too good in them, but it's getting warmer and my arms are getting smaller (not as small as I'd like, but smaller) so I bit the bullet and picked out a couple. Got a nice pair of slacks, too, but I need to get them hemmed.

Had my workout at Curves today and also a short walk.

So far today:

12 oz skim milk latte - 2pts
Small apple - 1pt
1/2 cup Light n Fit yogurt - 1pt

Balance 100 cal. bar - 1pt

6" Subway turkey & ham sandwich - 5pts

6 wheat/soy crackers - 1pt
1 light laughing cow - 1pt
4 soy cheese flavored crackers - .5 pt

Tilapia fish - 4pts
salad with FF ranch - 1pt

2 salmon oil tablets - 2pts

19.5 points total out of 20pts! Tomorrow is my weigh in and I'm not looking forward to it. Although I've done well this week (even on my birthday), my weight loss is really slowing down and it's depressing after seeing such big losses for the past month and a half.

Ok a couple of questions

When you exercise and recieve points back are we supposed to eat them again?
Is it true you should switch up point ranges each day to see weightloss?
Where can i find cheap weight watchers, candy, shakes packets and granola bars other than at a meeting? They are all 9.00 a box.
Should i use my extra points? what's the best way to use them?
How do you measure items that bites or pieces...ex. bite of cake, piece of hard candy:?: :?:

Today
1/2 cup of grits 2pts
Water 0pts

Smoothie real fruit and yogurt 5points

slice of pie with ice cream 12pts

workout hard plus 6pts

salmon grilled 6pts
1/2cup mashed 2
beets 0pts
honey carrots 1 pts

apple 1 pts

Total 22pts on track..:cool:

evierama, I will answer some of your questions later today. I am just doing a quick post before I hit the gym.

Last night went seriously down hill. I did end up eating about 4 cookies. We went out to dinner. I did pick the best thing off the menu, but I know I was still over points. Don't know where I ended up. However, I am mortified about weigh in tonight. I was doing so well too.

Anyhow, new day now. I ate breakfast and tried to get fuel for my cycle class this morning.

1/2 C cottage cheese 2/2
crushed pineapple 1/3

Off to the gym. Will let you all know if I could hang in this class. :^:

Morrigan, how did your weigh in go??? I can't remember where you were at.

Lost 2 lbs! Down to 183.4.

Some answers:

Eating your activity points is your choice. I would say, if you are exercising vigorously on a daily basis, go ahead and use them, your body probably needs it. Otherwise, my ww leader said, "if you skip them you may have better losses."

Since you can calulate points in anything with the little slide rule thing, I would forgo WW snacks alltogether and just find good low point snacks on your own. That being said, they sell a lot of them at our walmart for pretty cheap. I think the south beach diet bars are fairly comperable.

I don't count a few bites of something nonfattening. I count a few bites of stuff that is fattening. Figure at about 50 calories per point, you should count anything that is over 25 calories or so. For me, it was all those bites that have been doing me in weight wise for the last few years. I try to avoid taking bites of my kids stuff and stick with my planned meals. Though you will notice from my actual posts it often doesn't turn out that way.

I vary with my extra points. Sometimes I spread them out, sometimes I use a lot of them. Since I am not very good at planning, my extra points tend to get used up when I decide to go for something like a late snack. I use almost all my extra points every week (and sometimes go 10-20 over), I don't exercise regularly, and I still have managed to lose about 2 lbs per week.

Breakfast: oatbran cereal with blueberries (3) and creamer (1)
Snack: prunes (1)
Snack: artichoke (0)
Very large lunch - feel bloated: tofu stir fry with veggies and cottage cheese (8)

13 points so far today

WOOOO HOOOOOO!!! Had my weigh-in this morning. I lost another pound and a half! I'm down 20 pounds now!!!

So far today:

Pria 110 cal. bar - 2pts
Water

Gotta go. My daughter's kindergarten class has a field trip to the zoo this morning and I'm a chaperone. Gotta change and leave asap!

Back from the gym. Wow! That class kicked my butt. I held with it until the very last "hill climb." I just kept an easy pace and did not add tension to the bike like I should have. Last summer, I had to do less than everyone through the entire class. So, I have improved. :)

I calculated my activity points as 50 minutes at high intensity (and it was)! So, that gives me 7 extra points.

I had a pria bar when I got home. My first one and it was good.

My points now.........2/5

My take on the activity points is to use them if you need them (pretty much what Morrigan said). I sweat about a bucket full in my class today. I know I will use some of my activity points. If I just do treadmill or something at a moderate pace, I normally don't use them.

I have purchased the WW smoothie mix. I don't like it at all. So, I don't buy any of the expensive WW items either. No reason to.

I weigh in tonight. Scale shows up a bit today after my melt down yesterday afternoon and night. I may be down a bit, but I don't quite expect to lose the 2.8 I gained last week. Will let you all know.

Hope the zoo went well Liz. I go to the Imax tomorrow with my daughter's class. I hate the field trips. I have not missed one yet. I am too scared to let her go without me.

Morrigan!!!!!!!! You go girl! You are doing so well. :carrot: :carrot: :carrot: Keep it up. Or down I should say!!

Have a good afternoon all!