Had my first session with my personal coach!!!

This afternoon I had my first session with my one-on-one personal coach, Nicolle. I really was not sure what to expect, but I think it went very well! The 30 minutes flew by and we actually went 10 minutes over. I hope it did not make her late for her connections, but I really enjoyed speaking with her. The call started out with her giving me a mandatory short privacy and policy spiel. She gave me a short background on her; basically she has lost 55lbs and kept it off successfully sense 2001! She was very upfront to me saying that there were days, weeks, or even months that she doesn't always follow her plan like she should and did have some gains but Weight Watchers always pulled her back!  Currently she is not maintaining but working on losing a little weight she gained this summer. 

 I really am looking forward to getting to know her more; her personal journey, how Weight Watcher’s has changed, and any wisdom/advice she has for me! I will take it! Nicolle also gave me a short run down with how the personal coaching goes; how many clients meet with her once or twice a week but there are some that meet 3 or 4 times and a week that that is completely fine with her.

I found out from a different source (the online chat) that most coaches have a cap of about 4 clients at one time, so that is good! That was one of my original questions when I was looking through the coaches; some had 20, 30 or more reviews…did that mean that are overloaded with clients??? It does not though, it just means they have been helping people a little longer than some of the others.

Next she asked about me, to tell her about my journey so far and some of the successes and challenges I had had so far. She reassured me that it is pretty common for people to have a stall somewhere between 6 to 8 months on Weight Watchers. We talked about ways that we can get me out of it! I felt reassured after talking with her about my decision to cancel meetings when I joined the personal one-on-one coaching.

She also took some of the time to give me some encouragement and tools. We talked about my exercise and eating habits and started to work up a plan. It was a LOT of information. Honestly, I was a bit overwhelmed and I am not sure if I caught all of it. I want to mention here (and I actually did not tell this to her yet, I plan to next time) again though I know I have said it before, I have an auditory processing disability. It is part of my dyslexia. Things I hear just get goofed around. After my session I started writing this blog partially to try to remember some of the great things she told me, but I know I missed some of it. For my next sessions I plan to treat them like a class and type everything that I hear and then blog about it.

I do remember some of her points and advice. She told me I needed to keep switching up meals and exercise. Our bodies get used to foods/bodily movement if we do or have the same thing over and over. She also gave me a great rule of thumb to follow about activity points! I was really never sure before about how many activity points I should eat (like when I earn let’s say 6 which I do on an average day, how many should I eat over my daily point goal). She told me that anything over 4 activity points I should try to eat. Now, I remember searching for a good rule to this, asked a few personnel in chat and asked openly in some groups.

I am really glad that she is going to write up some of what we talked about in my action plan, but it went something like track/follow every day this week, and update my plan every day this week (we talked about how I had already set up my entire week from meals, snacks, to the coffee creamer), and think of some topics I would like to know more about. There might have been more. I will add it here when she gets it to me.

I did warn her that I plan to make another session or two this week. I think after I get a handle of things I will be good with 1 or 2 a week, but maybe for awhile I will have closer to 3 if our schedules allow. All of the other sessions I schedule will be 15 minutes.

So, that was a bit about my experience with my new personal coach! I feel like we are a great fit and I am excited to see how this will assist me on my journey!

I will probably write another blog tomorrow or the next day. My weigh-in for the week is tomorrow morning and I want to finally continue on Made to Crave (it has been awhile).

Thanks for reading!


Tessa

Dropped meetings and coach and my fitbit failed me!

Wow, 3rd blog in a week!  Go me!   Don't worry, this is not usual!  lol

So, as I mentioned in my last post my fitbit is out of order.  I know the title says it failed me, but I guess that is not necessarily true, but I pretty much failed it.  I guess they are not water proof...k, I knew that before too, but my fitbit One did NOT like it when I ran it through the washing machine!  Opps!

When I found it (went through the dryer too) it was dead... I crossed my finished and tried to recharge it.  I was feeling hopeful when it turned on and seemed to be working.  I actually went for a walk and didn't even think about it until I got home and looked and saw that my 40 minutes walk earned me about 4 steps!  Ummmm, yeah something was not right.  I did follow the recommendations I could find; I reset it, plugged it in...finally with my head hung low and the hope that the company might give me a discount for another one (because I really do love it) I called customer service. 

The lady I spoke to was very helpful and understanding.  She was first going to have me try to put it in a bag of rice overnight, but after I was asking her about some of the problems I was having with the case (the metal was showing!) she set it up to send me another one free of charge!  

Now, I have heard that they do this but it was not what I was expecting. I wondered if the stupidity of putting it through the washing machine would quality as a replacement, but I guess it does!   Love fitbit!   So I should receive it by next week (probably mid next week!).  I am looking forward to getting that back into the mix of things!
So, that happened yesterday.  The other thing that happened yesterday is I changed things on my weight watcher's account, again.  After some consideration, a conversation with my husband (who is such a good sport about this especially because I did not talk to him before I added personal one-on-one coaching), and some additional research I decided to change my account from online, meetings, and one-on-one personal coaching (about $60) to online and one-on-one coaching (about $45).  It ended up being only $5 more a month than what I was doing before.   This was harder than I thought it would be.  I have been with this group for about 8 months and I did find great success for awhile.  Things just didn't seem to be working for me the past 3 months though and it really was time to switch things up.  

If this one-on-one coaching can make me drop another 30lbs at least, that would be fantastic!   Maybe after awhile I will feel the need to change it up again...drop the coaching and go back to the meetings!  I think knowing that I can always change things back helped with the decision to drop the meeting.

One great thing is after I changed my account I was able to go through my health assessment again...so I took some screen shots and posted it below.

There was about 6 pages of this including some question/answer questions about your reasons and anything else you wanted to tell you coach...above is a sample of what it looks like though.

I also made another hard decision yesterday.  I changed my coach.  The coach I had chosen and already had some great correspondence (and I am sure would have been wonderful) did not have an opening in the afternoon until Wednesday.  I thought at first that would be ok but by last night I was considering looking again for someone that would be available sooner, like Monday!  

So, I wrote to CJK (the name of my coach) my apologies and reason for canceling my first session with her and switching and spent another good hour looking through the coaches/profiles/reviews.   One good thing is I can always work with CJK also or switch at any time.  One thing I came across is many people seem to have 2 separate coaches.  I think one is enough for me, but if something doesn't work out with my new coach, neither one us is stuck! 

So, after another good half hour of searching I decided on a coach named Nicolle.

I am not exactly sure why.  Again she looked nice (though they all do), had some specialties I could relate to like meal planning, cooking for the family, eating out, the gym, and working with fitness monitors. 

So, I set up our first meeting time for 1:30pm Monday afternoon!   I am looking forward to it! 

Ok, so I know this is the 3rd blog this week but it really was a changing week!  It is day 4 now of me being really 'on' the program.  I now have done the elliptical four days in a row and have stayed within my point range too! 

Wanted to share my victory I had last night.  We went to a birthday party of one of my nieces last night and I had no idea what would be served for supper.  I saved plenty of points (about 15).  What was there was my worst enemy; pizza!   There were also grapes and carrots so I had plenty of those along with 1 slice of pizza!  Now, I know I probably could have had a second slice of pizza but I wasn't sure at the time if I was going to cave in for the cake or not.   It ended up being ice cream cake which I am not a big fan of, so I said no to the cake!   I was very proud of myself last night!   If I wasn't 'on' I probably would have had 2 or 3 slices of pizza and a piece of ice cream cake.  I know I don't always need to say no, but at the time the cake did not seem worth it!   I was actually quite a bit below my points so I had some almonds and graham crackers when I got home. 

So, I am really off to a great start!  I really hope that when I have my first session on Monday that I can say that I tracked the entire time and stayed around my point goal.   My plan until then is to go over a little bit tomorrow for my points (dip into the weekly points because I have not done that yet this week) because we have dinner plans and I probably won't get my 40 minutes of exercise in, but that is ok.  I think my knees need a rest.  Monday though I am going to be right back on. 

Thanks for reading! 

Changing Things Up! Getting a personal coach

So....if you have been following my last few blogs it is evident that things aren't going very well these past few weeks!





Weight change chart sense I started in January



Last eight weeks weigh-in Weight Watchers

Yeah, I am officially on an incline.   Even worse than my weigh-in's (because it is NOT just about the numbers) are the missing green dots on 8/5 and 8/12.   Those indicate that I didn't even go to the meeting!  Ug! 


Why do I have these rising numbers???

Progress report for the past month

I want you to take note of the food tracked days.   Yeah...not tracking!   Also as you can see my activity earned has gone way down too...part of this is because I am having trouble with my fitbit (which is currently out of action...I guess it is not good to run it through the washer...grrr!), but I have been slacking!  


So, as you can tell during the past few weeks there have been a few days where I tracked but then fell right off the wagon again.   This has been going on for the past 3 months.  

I have no good reasons and have no excuses, but I was starting to fear that I was failing Weight Watchers... notice I said, 'was.' 

I am feeling more optimistic now.   First of all, I am currently on day 3 of being back on track and exercising (I have even been on the elliptical two days in a row now!).   I really have a feeling that if I continue, sorry not if but WHEN, then on my next weigh-in I will have a large drop.  I know that some of the gain I had last Wednesday was water weight; because I had eaten high sodium foods the day before and had a hard workout that very day and drank lots of water.  

The other reason I am feeling optimistic and a little excited again is, per the title of this blog...yesterday I signed up to get personal coach through weight watchers!   I spent some time looking into it yesterday and after realizing it was about $20 extra a month and going back and forth about it, I decided just to go for it (before I could change my mind).   If this is not something that seems to help I can always opt out next month.  I am considering maybe dropping meetings...but don't tell my meeting members (ummm some might  be reading this ...shhh).   I am not sure though.

What is a personal coach through Weight Watchers?  I will tell you, well I will at least show you.  

 So, basically a personal coach is someone specific that you are hooked up with (that doesn't change unless he/she has as conflict then you get a temp. subsitite) that has done WW successfully in the past and has kept off the weight.  Often times they are/were a meetings coach it seems.  

So, with one hand covering my eyes my other clicked the 'sign up.' button...I did it.   I upgraded to personal coaching. 

The first thing they had me do was fill out a pretty detailed health profile.  Asked about things like eating habits, daily stress, schedule...and much more.  I think this assessment really got to the 'why' of weight gain. 

There was also a section that specifically asked you want you want your coach to work with you on.   I wish I would have copied things like what the health assessment looked like and what exactly I said about my goal; something about helping me continue to make good health choices and being a good role-model for my girlie.  I will update later. 

After the assessment I got to pick a time/date and a coach!   This part was really easy and challenging at the same time.  Easy because there are a LOT of options for when the coaches would be available for your first 30 minute phone meetings.  Challenging because they gave me like 15 coaches to choose from.  I had not idea who to choose!  I think the choosing took me longer than the assessment.    After some looking and clicking I finally settled on someone called CJK.   She looked friendly (lol they all did), had lost a pretty large amount of weight (65 pounds), and had some good reviews!  

What I can share is the changes that happened after I signed up for coaching.  

I got this new tab on my weight watchers page....

And this is what it looks like when I click on it.

 

The motivation statement is something I picked out...it is the same quote that is above my motion wall.   After our first conference on Tuesday I will have my very first action plan.   We even had some correspondence already :) 





So, as far as I can tell.  We will have our first session on Wednesday, September 2nd (I picked that time and day).  The conferences are via phone which is pretty cool and personal.  The first one is scheduled for 30 minutes and the rest after are 15 minutes.  I guess we can schedule up to 3 at a time and there doesn't seem to be a max.   LOL I don't think I will take up too many but I am very excited.  

Each week we will work up an action plan that I will work towards.  Something specific and measurable (I think).  

CJ seems very nice and the reviews seem great!   I am really hoping that when I meet with her I will already be off to a great start, that I will have good to report.   I chose that day because pretty much right after is my weight watcher's meeting.   It will be neat to be able to report to them how this went so soon after. 

Well, wish me luck and I hope to write another blog mid next week :)

Still struggling

Yes, after such a positive start last week (or was it two weeks ago?) I am still having a difficult time sticking with this.  Actually, I am about 5 pounds up from when I wrote that last post.  :(  No excuses, just me and bad choices.   I start so many morning very determined it is going to be a good day; then something happens like we go out for lunch, dinner plans change...and I just gorge myself. I have not been getting in the steps like I should either...too tired, too busy, not feeling well. No good excuses of course. Again, summer is hard! I need to work on sticking with it when plans change and life gets busy. I can't only be able to take care of myself when we are in routine and I am in completely control.

 The other day I went with my husband boot shopping in Dubuque. I had eaten well that morning and had not planned to go out. I had planned on eating a healthy lunch and then had supper planned out that evening. So, of course we went out for lunch (we rarely get out much less without the little one) and choose Hu Hut. Now, Hu hut could be a healthy place to eat with some slight restrictions...get lots of vegetables, have a small serving of the noodles and then be careful with your sauces. I was so hungry when I got there that I filled up my plate with a bunch of junk and put some high calorie sauces on. I ate maybe half of that plate (ended up not being a fan of what I had chosen) and then went back for another big plate full. First of all, I am normally not that wasteful (would not leave half a plate but had not really been enjoying it). I should have gotten a smaller portion the first time around. I also should have not let myself get that hungry. So...after that meal and the 2 raspberry iced teas I had used up something like 23 points for just that meal (and I get a total of 31). One positive thing about the other day is after this, while before I might have gorged myself the rest of the day or gone after stupid things like baking chips and such that evening, I stayed pretty good the rest of the day. Except for a small chocolate bar at a coffee place I ate very sensibly the rest of the day.

Yesterday and today really are going very well! For the first time in a few weeks I got on my elliptical for 40 minutes. I really enjoyed my time and felt good afterwards. I had such a headache the rest of the day (and really had thought I had drank enough water and such...I might have been going through sugar withdrawal already) though. I stuck to my point goal yesterday too, right on! I even had a meal change when suddenly my husband was going to eat with us(I thought he was going to be in the field and eat the neighbors) and I didn't have enough food for all 3 of us... I improvised and had a baked potato with some ham and laughing cow cheese.   

Today I have been eating well and have a chicken the crock pot for tonight.   Right after this blog post I am going to get Cora down for a nap and then for the second day in the world I am going to get on the elliptical.   So...I am off to a good fresh start again.  I just need to stay consistent and if I do go off for a meal or food item I need to not let that derail me for days (like I got back on track after lunch at Hu Hut the other day).   I can do this.  Just wish I had more success to post on here.   

Round two; ding, ding!

So, these past few weeks I have done pretty horribly. Not keeping track of points, not making sure I get in exercise, and I have even missed my last two weight watcher meetings! I had a pretty good excuse for the first week but none this past week.

I have practically lost nothing this summer…only about four pounds sense May! I am again happy that I am going down and not up, but still. This is it though! I got through some busyness hurdles including a wedding and some traveling and I am ready to tackle my health again head on! This is day one! Really mentally prepared myself to start today (getting some junk and bad meals out of our house, stocking our fridge with good stuff…). These next two weeks I am going to hit weight watchers strict and strong. Going to stay at my 31 points each day and not go over until maybe later this week when I will work in a little extra for activity. These past few days have given me plenty to not worry about supplementing activity until later this week though. Each day I am going to get in some 40 minutes activity!

I have not touched the scale in almost two weeks (sense my last successful weight in on 7/30^th) and I plan not too until this next Wednesday when I do go to my meeting. I am expecting/mentally preparing myself for a slight gain next week even if I kick butt this week. I would not be surprised if these past few weeks had me gain 5lbs! Maybe it really isn’t that bad and I think in a few days when I get ahold of water weight I will check it out so I know at least where I started.

I am also planning on blogging more, so be prepared! At least every few days even a bit just to keep myself accountable.

Today is going very well so far! I had oatmeal with some pb2 this morning with a banana. This afternoon I had a Flatout Wrap with turkey, fresh garden tomatoes (yummy!), lettuce, one wedge of laughing cow cheese, and I dipped it into Bolthouse Avacado Ranch! First time I have tried that, amazing! I only used about 1 T worth. I also had about a cup of cucumbers (because I am up to my eyes in cucumbers will be eating a lot of them) and I used the other T of the Avacado dressing to dip them into. Thank you sister-in-law Jill for suggesting that! Tonight’s supper will consist of chicken, baked potato with laughing cow cheese (love the stuff), and a big salad.

I did get my walk in today; a long one! We walked for a good hour! I have not gotten the stroller out for a few weeks so Cora was excited to go. I normally walk mid-mroning so it is also her snack time. I convince her to stay in the stroller for a good 30/40 minutes while I can walk fast along the road and she eats her snack. I know soon I will be trying to keep up with her but as of for now she is still pretty slow unless she runs (which she does too). I hate walking along the highway/road but unless we go to town (and sometimes we do) but we also have a nice field road that I can push the stroller on and she can run/walk free! Also the dog gets to be off leach when we get to our road. The whole thing back and forth takes maybe 20 minutes but it is enough to give her moving time. I love that she is with me and learning these healthy habits now! She is only 3 and I know it is still pretty early to tell, but so far she is not chunky at all. I let her eat when she is hungry, give two snacks in between meals and try to get her moving as much as we can! I hope and pray she does not have the overweight struggles I had during my childhood.

One frustrating thing is after my walk this afternoon I sat down at my computer and synced the fit bit. I thought it synced wrong at first because it only said 24 steps! (should be about 7 or 8000!). I looked at my fit bit and YUP, it said 24 steps. This is also a good place to mention that I accidentally washed my fit bit in the washing machine last week! OPPS! Not water proof by the way. I kept it out to try, charged it full (because it was about out of battery too) and it seemed to be working this morning so I put it on and didn’t even check in until I was home. It started logging better after I hooked it up but to be safe I went ahead and reset the things. Sense I did that it seems to be tracking fine now…just frustrated I am missing those 7000 steps. I am semi thinking about putting my fit bit in a sock and putting it into the dryer with no heat and see if I can make up for the steps lost…not sure if that would hurt it though lol.

Anyway, this is off to a great start and I am glad I am doing this on a random Thursday and not waiting for a Monday.  It would have been easy too!   So, this is round two!   I am going to hit this strong for two weeks and thing allow myself some cheat meals after that again.  I need to get my eating under control first.  Wish me luck and I would also appreciate a prayer! 

Tessa