Family Dill Blog

So I’m still trying to learn sign language. I hope to one day be good enough to interpret for schools, churches, camps, wherever I can bridge the gap between the deaf and the hearing world.

What I have learned so far this summer, confirms that what I already knew. Without a computer, my spelling is awful! Many adults finger spell words, when no sign exists or to make sure they are clear in what they are trying to convey.

So I ask all of you out there, how do I improve my spelling? I’m not bad at any given sign, but the finger spelling, has got to be the worst of this language. With some luck, I hope I use the right facial expressions and other non-manual signs correctly to make up for the finger spelling.

So I will keep going, keeping my eyes on the prize! This will work out, and I will be OK.

OK, so last week I was suppose to weigh in and due to fun family things, I didn’t. Initially I felt guilty. I have paid my fees, and need to be held accountable. But than when reality kicked in,I didn’t feel guilty at all.

Weight loss and my health is about me, not the person or group I’m weighing in with. Yes, it’s great for support and motivation, but that will eventually go away. Once your a “Lifetime Member” with WW, you only need to weigh in once a month. Therefore you most likely will not see them as often as you do now.

After spending time with my family on my weigh in day, what I felt was more important, was knowing that the healthier I get, the longer I can be here for my family. That in itself should be motivation enough. With good health, a good gene pool hopefully, and luck, I might even be able to meet my great-grandchildren.

So another new change I have made, is trying to look at the big picture. Life is short and we waste much of it with mindless fillers and no direction. I have direction now. I might still have mindless fillers, but I know where I’m heading.

On that note, I will post again after Wednesday.

Well, it’s hard to believe that the 4th of July has already come and gone. Time sure does fly.

With the 4th of July, came parties. I attended two this year back to back. It was tough trying to make the best food choices for me. One party was a little easier, as it was BYOM (Bring your own meat) and a side to share. While the first party I brought nothing, I didn’t even think to bring anything. Although miss manners wouldn’t like it, there was more food then you can imagine, so my lack of a contribution wasn’t missed.

So anyway, bringing my own meat allowed me to cook what I wanted with less points. Counting was pretty easy. The other party offered the entire menu with a big selection, from chicken breast to sausage and all those good things in between.

So what did I do? Well I’m human. Party number one, I ate until my heart was content and justifies it by drinking water. While Party two, I ate my own homemade selected turkey burger. A fine Weight Watchers recipe I might add, with a side of fresh cut watermelon.

While both parties were fun,I really only paid attention to my food at the second party. Something, I must work on. I certainly can enjoy all the foods, just smaller portions and maybe not taste everything in site.

Good news, however, I still lost a pound. The official weight loss to date after four weigh in’s is 8.8 down. Sill at least 34 more pounds to go. But I’m not looking at that. It really is too big. Giving me a more realistic goal, I’m looking to just another 8 pounds. Choosing this number was at the suggestion of WW.

I like it. It seems more manageable. I’m amazed how much pop I have cut out, as well as those fast food runs.

A family member posed a good question recently. While on vacation, they indicated they were tired of fast food, and couldn’t understand how people live on it. Well people don’t really live do they? That’s why their over-weight, crabby, sick, and unable to sleep. I speak from experience of course.

Because of my weight loss, I sleep better, eat better, and not sick as often. However, eating better has actually cost me more money. But that goes with the old saying that “you get what you pay for.” You also heard “garbage in, garbage out.” So true that is even with food.

As the summer continues, so must my counting points. I can always bring my own meal or snacks. Which is exactly what I intend to do this Sunday, while we spend a day at Arlington Race Track. It will be fun and I will keep my points in check. Let’s see how much I can loose for the next weigh in.

I have often heard that your mind plays tricks on you. After reading an article by Dr. Oz, and using that theory, I have changed my plate size. Yes you are correct, I changed my plate size. Instead of a big dinner plate, I now use the small salad plates that came in my set. I never used them before except for dessert. But according to the article, when you see a large plate, you believe you have to fill it. Therefore you pile on the food. Whereas a smaller plate allows you only so much room and you take smaller portions. Now my brain thinks, “Wow, there’s so much here”. Of course it’s smaller portions, but crammed on a smaller plate, now I’m playing tricks on the brain.

Another great tip was to place the food farther away from where you’re eating. No more family style service for me. The idea here is the farther away the food, the less likely you will be to get out of your chair and get more. Once again, tricking your brain into thinking you’re done. Out of sight, out of mind I guess is how it works.

I also read in that article, that if you wanted to jump start your diet you should make the Dr. Oz, green drink. So I did. His drink consists of the following ingredients……..Spinach (leaf), celery, parsley, cucumber, apples, fresh lemon juice, fresh lime juice, small amount of ginger root, and I add a banana to sweeten it up a little. You blend it all up and for a fruit and veggie smoothie.
I must admit, I was a little skeptical of its taste at first, but although it’s not mind blowing, it’s actually really good. So good in fact, that I drink 8 oz every day with my breakfast, and I’m good. So it’s filling me up, and it’s zero points on weight watchers. If you want me to post the amounts, I will so you can try it yourself.

I would also like to add, that even though I haven’t dropped a clothing size yet, I am noticing things. For instance, my face and neck are thinner. I’m not craving pop, and my water intake has greatly increased. I also, have lost my taste for alcohol which is both good and bad. I’m sure I could be corrupted again once I get to my goal weight.

So here it is June 30th and another weigh in is behind me. Much to my surprise, I lost another pound giving me a grand total now of 7 pounds in three weeks. Not to bad, not a drop in clothes sizes yet, but none the less a drop in overall body fat.

This, once again has been a rough week. I found myself just looking for anything that might sound good to eat. Was I hungry? No. Was I bored? Most likely. I might even have been stressed a little. Who knows? But it really does matter.

The big picture of losing weight is not actually calling it a “diet”, or a “hunger strike.” But, it is a lifestyle change. The only way I know how to make a lifestyle change is to really look at myself. I have to ask myself some tough question too. You know the ones, “do I really need that?” “Should I really keep that for a rainy day?” “why do I want to eat now?” There are many others I’m sure.

The best way to find out the answer to many of those questions is to actually start journaling. Yes, I said journaling. With Weight Watchers, you do keep track of the food you eat and the points they contain. But you really should be adding the time of day. Why? you may ask.

Well, in my opinion, I believe you can change your lifestyle by seeing what is happening through out your day that makes you want things, or do things. List the big picture from the time you wake up, until the time you go to bed. I’m thinking with this in mind, you can predict a little easier why you may want to eat all the time and where you can actually fit in exercise. You might even find your eating at 7, 12, and 5 and why because that’s the normal meal time right? But it doesn’t have to be. Once you have the clear picture, take the challenge and change what you can.

Lifestyle changes come in many different forms. From clothing to food habits, to even the houses we live in. So pull out your computers, your notebook or whatever you have to start journaling your time, listen to your body, make your changes.

Well, it’s been awhile since I blogged, but you know how life gets in the way. Besides I’m not really sure if anyone is reading this or not. Or do I mean following this?

Any way I had another weigh in back on June 22 nd. I was hoping for even a small loss. After all it was a bad week for food and me. I ended up eating out three times that week, and I didn’t count very well. In fact on father’s day, I ate a whole plate of ravioli from Olive Garden. Of course I ordered the mushroom ravioli, but between pasta and the white cream sauce, Oh need I say more. Plus of course I had a few appetizers, and a water melon martini. All very good, but totally lost my points.

A few days later I found myself at Cracker Barrel and couldn’t resist the “chicken and dumplings”. Billed as homemade, who could pass that up? Again not good for counting the points. Yes there was another stop in there, but I cannot recall where or what I ate, so it must have been fast food.

But to my surprise I still lost 1 pound. OK, so I didn’t lose the 5 pounds I lost the first week, but heck 1 is still better than nothing right. I still lost even with eating out. How did that happen?

I can only surmise, that even with eating out and miss calculating points, I still had portion control the other days. That’s really what losing weight is all about, portion control. I even go so far as weighing out 3 oz of meat at home. Not to mention, I measure everything else imaginable.

What I have found and learned in doing all of this, is that when the package says 3/4 cup or 2 Tbs. think it through. We don’t really need anymore than the suggested amount. So why do we insist on eating twice or more of the serving? I’m not really sure I know the answer to that.

In this country we want for nothing. As long as you are working hard, and paying taxes we find it’s the simple things in life that’s all we need. Come on, do we really need that fast food run, or could we stop and maybe even pre-pack our own food? Why do we make ourselves so busy, what’s it all for. All were going to do is rush to die right?

So with that in my mind, my new motto is “pre-plan, and slow down”. What doesn’t get done today, will still be there tomorrow. Pre plan the meal and how to handle eating out, and taking the time to enjoy myself and my food. Makes for an all new happier me.

So here’s to one more pound down, and about and another 34 more to go. But I will make it! Slow and steady wins the race. “PRE-PLAN AND SLOW DOWN”.

I can hardly believe I have made it one week in the Weight Watchers program. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. I still eat many of the foods I like, just in moderation. Plus, I actually ask myself if I want to spend the points or not.

I also think I like being held accountable weekly to weigh in with someone. At first I thought it was crazy, and in some ways I think it still is. But it’s working, how can you argue with that? There is a person in our group who has met their goal weight and is now on maintenance, everyone was so excited for her. This was good to see tonight. To see that this program really does work.

So your probably wondering, how did my weigh in go? Well even though I had a big mac and 1/2 fries, a hamburger, 3 cans a coke and a fountain coke……I still lost, 5.2 lbs. It’s a miracle, but it shows, if you fall off, get back on and it will be OK. You just cannot give up.

But, let’s think about this. I haven’t done one thing to get up off the couch really. Imagine how much more I could lose, if I would just start exercising. Why is it so easy to do nothing, but so hard to do what is right? Even when we know it’s the right thing to do, yet we don’t.

So the next goal is to keep working at the points and trying to move as well. A little exercise can go a very long way.

OK, day 5. So today is not a good day. I got up late and had to go to an appointment. So what happened? I skipped breakfast. This was not good. By the time my appointment was over it was close to noon, and now I was starving.

So what happened, well I’m sure you can guess. Yes, there was a Sonic so I had to stop. Really!?

I tried to be good, really. I got a value meal a chicken wrap with dreaded fries and a pop. Took make matters worse, I also got myself some fried cheese sticks. It was so good!, but now what?

If I look at my points, I just blew them all in this one meal. Dinner is going to be difficult. I can make a spinach salad, with strawberries and kiwi, but will that hold me all night? I’m not really sure. I’m actually kind of mad at myself for not eating right. All that hard work just got washed down the drain in one day.

OK, so now I guess there are consequences for my choices. I always have to learn the hard way, it can never be easy. I think I’m a stress eater and a boredom eater. So now I have to try and keep busy so I’m not eating again.

On the positive flip side…I am drinking a lot of water and I am down from 4 cans of pop to one a day. If I have a pop at a fast food joint, I do not have another at home. So I guess even though this is a struggle and it isn’t easy, it will work out. I just need confidence, strength and support.

So if I’m lucky enough for anyone to read this, maybe I will have the support I need.

Well I haven’t blogged in awhile. I guess because of many things, but mainly no followers. How does one get followers?

Any way, I completed my year at Waubonsee Community College. I did OK, but not well enough to enter the ITP program, so I am now enrolled at Harper Community College in the hope of completing my quest in becoming a good interpreter.

This class is designed to teach me how to fingerspell and read fingerspelling as well learning the numbering system as much as possible. I must admit this class was harder than expected. I am really working my tail off and I have only had two classes. It’s hard to read the letters as not individual but as a whole. I don’t even know if that’s possible. I’m trying to learn the shape of the word and take context clues and first and last letters to fill in the blanks. This is not easy.

I guess it’s like any other language, you have to learn. If it’s not your first language it won’t be easy. I wish I could find a deaf mentor. That would help immensely! I could practice and learn from thoes who use it everyday, not just thoes who teach it.

No offense to the teachers, but who better to learn from than from the people who grew up with it.

Well I guess for now, that’s all. I hope to post more later and eventually even get followers. Deaf followers with suggestions and help would be best, but teachers and students will be helpful to.

I know as silly as it sounds, I’m blogging about losing weight. Well who doesn’t want to lose weight or maintain their current weight. All kinds of research suggests the being overweight is just not good for you. So in order to keep myself accountable, I’m going to blog about it.

I started Weight Watchers on June 8, 2011. My husband thinks it’s going to be another costly gimmick. He said for the money were paying “it better work”. Well I second that. After stepping on the scale and realizing I need to loose 40 lbs. to be at the top of my healthy weight, I figure I’m in for a hard, long wait.

I pay a big fee up front, but get access to web tools, and mobile apps. I even get to go to weekly meetings and weigh in. But the cost doesn’t include, the calculator to help count your points, and the scale to weigh things. It also doesn’t come with a personal trainer or chef.

But what I am finding it does, is teach me portion control. Unlike some of the other companies out there, I’m learning to cook all the same foods, just a little healthier and eating a little less. Those other companies just leave you dependant on them so it’s more difficult to succeed on your own.

I weighed myself today on June 12, 2011. I was surprised by the fact I may have actually lost a few pounds. My scale said 6 lbs., now that’s with no clothing and before eating. After my shower and adding clothing it still read 5 lbs gone. No I haven’t checked out my weight after eating, but I’m guessing it still has to be OK. maybe not 5 or 6 lbs, but maybe 2 or 3. I plan to weigh myself tonight and find out.

I also heard you loose a lot of water weight first. That could explain why I don’t feel bloated and yet my clothes still fit the same.

So here I go, on a new journey to try and loose weight. Weight in my family has always been a problem, so I got a lot going against me. But at the same time, I have a great support group and and the willing to succeed. Plus I have to weigh in weekly, so I really don’t want to embarrass myself and see that I have gained any weight.