Saturday February 7th

Here I am...once again, a week later. This might actually be kinda fun, since I only am writing once a week maybe I won't get tired of it.

We bought some new scales this week, from Wal-Mart. When I weighed on them, I realized that the new scales and the old scales had about a 3 lb difference, with the new scales being less. So, I guess I should say my starting weight was 233 lbs, not 236. I gave the old scales to my mom. Hopefully the new scales are a little more correct. That is one reason I wish I could go to meetings; the scales there are probably the most accurate ones, but I'll survive.

Charles weighed in on Monday; he had lost 9 lbs (sorry sucker!!). I am glad for him though. I weighed in this morning. I will tell you my new weight in a few minutes. First, let me talk about this...I got on the scales on Wednesday night just to see what it said (I still had the old scales at this point, mind you). It showed my weight still being what it was last Saturday, 236. So I was quite discouraged. I know, I know...it was bad of me to get on the scale, but I did it anyway. So....to make a long story short, when I got on the new scales this morning, I was pleasantly surprised. I have weighed myself two or three times this morning to make sure it was accurate every time. My new weight is........................226 lb!! That means I lost 7 lbs last week!!! Woooo!!!! Very exciting. Now this is of course with the new scales. Please Lord let them be accurate.

I have also realized, however, that I am going to be having to move down to 26 pts a day on the Flex plan once I get to 224 lbs. Right now I am eating 28 pts a day. So, whew, it's gonna be a little change but one I will take if it means I am losing that weight. One reason I was so shocked this morning is b/c I have PCOS (Polycycstic Ovarian Syndrome). One side effect of this is being hard to lose weight. I realize that I won't be losing 7 lbs every week, but I am just glad to be off to a good start. From now on, even if I just lose 1-2 lbs a week, I will be happy. I also started walking this week, 1 mile a day. We skipped Thursday, hehehe. I have shin splints, pretty bad, so I have to be careful how far I walk. I am prolly walking further then I should b/c before I get home, my shins hurt SO bad, but I'm not a weinie so I push through. Hopefully soon I can bump it up to about 1 and a half miles, and then onward from there.

I have usually plan my menus for two weeks at a time, b/c we go grocery shopping every two weeks. But I have already started my new menu and we won't even go shopping again until next Friday, Feb 13. Why, you ask? I have been looking up all kinds of WW recipes and I bought a WW cookbook from ebay. It has a few good recipes in it. I am excited to try all this new HEALTHY food. So, from now on, every week, I am going to post a new recipe on here that we have tried. This week it is gonna be Chipper Banana Muffins. I made them them morning...and they were okay, kinda bland. You can probably think of a way to pep them up or lower the points even more, but I had never made muffins from scratch so I was pretty proud of myself for not screwing them up. Okay, that's all for now...still here, and still not starving. I am already ready for next week...hopefully I will be able to tell you that I am having to step my daily points down :)

Holly's Starting Weight: 233 lbs
Holly's Current Weight: 226 lbs
Weight Lost: 7 lbs

Chipper Banana Muffins

2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup skim buttermilk
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
3. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer at medium speed, beat the sugar, applesauce, eggs, and oil until frothy. With the mixture at low speed, alternately add the bananas and buttermilk with the flour mixture; stir until just combined ( do not overmix). Fold in the chocolate chips.
4. Spoon the batter into the cups, filling each about two-thirds full. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes.

Per serving: 150 calories, 5 g Total Fat, 1 g Saturated Fat, 24 mg Cholesterol, 161 mg Sodium, 23 g Total Carbohydrate, 1 g Dietary Fiber, 3 g Protein, 38 mg Calcium

Points per muffin: 3