So I just got a new job and I am having some difficulties with balancing my healthy lifestyle.  I am working as a bartender/waitress at a wing joint and I need some advice with the following issues I have been having.  I am working 64hr work weeks and I seem to be falling off the wagon.  Any suggestions?

Problems:

1. Trying to get up in the morning with enough time to eat a healthy breakfast.
   Why this is a problem: I then nibble all day on French Fries.

2. Trying not to eat food at work since I am there for anywhere from 7-12 hrs.
   Why this is a problem: I haven't lost much weight since I started and the foods are horrible.  They are what I like to call sometimes foods and I am not eating them sometimes.

3. Exercise.
   Why this is a problem: I am walking around all day since I am waitressing, and when I get home I just count that as my exercise since I haven't sat for hours.  How do I beat the tired feeling?

4. Being Consistent with diet/exercise.
   Why this is a problem: Do I really need to say? lol.

HELP?

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I really appreciate it!!

I haven't written in almost two weeks so I feel as though I need to update you all on a few things that were left open from the last post... 

 1. Was I able to get to 142.0 lbs by April 1st?

Nope.  I worked my tail off too.  Every day I was exercising 3+ hours a day only yo get down to 144.4 lbs.  Not exactly what I was expecting.  Only losing some of the weight with all the effort put into it made me a little upset.  The following week I feel off track (i.e I didn't track points and ate a lot of Easter goodies).

 2. Well, have you hit 142.0 lbs now?  If so, did you allow yourself to get your lip pierced or did you decide that since you didn't reach your goal weight by the designated time that you didn't deserve it?

I have hit 142.0 lbs!! Yay!! To say the least. And, I am only a pound and some change from being in the 130's.  Hitting 142.0 lbs means that I have now officially lost 35 lbs!! 35 lbs!! To answer the next question about the piercing, my husband convinced me that I should get it as a reward of how hard I worked rather than trying to focus on numbers as recognition of all the work I had been doing.

 3. What job did you choose?

I ended up choosing the bartending position with East Coast Wings.  I sort of chose it by default.  The other job (the youth counselor position with Ecard Youth Alternatives) decided to take back their offer.  I sense that there is some foul work, but that makes me feel better about the fact that I am not going to be working for the company.  I had my suspicious about management not doing their job and during my exit interview I brought it up (I think this is the reason that the offer was taken back.  Who wants someone that is willing to question authority? lol). 

 Other than all of that there isn't really any new information to blog about.  The first week in April was a bad one but I still lost weight (only 0.2 lbs but I would rather go down than up).  This week started and has remained better than last week.  I have been discouraged about not losing as much as I normally do so I looked up some information about beating the weight loss plateau and made three changes to my routine.

 1. Changed the amount of points I have per day so that they are not constant.  I did this by figuring out how many points I was allowed a week and then varied them each day so that I would still end up with the same amount of points at the end of the week.

 2. Limiting my salt intake.

 3. Adding one extra activity a day (not exercise) that would make me have to get up and move around a little more than usual (i.e - don't use the remote today)

Today was the third weigh in for the month.  Surprisingly I was able to lose 2 lbs even though I ate horribly and didn't complete all of my exercise.  I wasn't able to meet the weight goal for this weigh in however.  I was supposed to be at 143.8 lbs but I weighed in at 145.2 lbs.  This week I am going to work my butt off so that I can lose enough to make my weight goal for the month -- 142.0 lbs.

Most of the reason for my failure (as in, I didn't eat well or exercise) has to do with all the stress that I am under.  I just want to crawl into bed until everything goes away.  I was offered two positions with two different companies and I was supposed to choose which one I wanted by 3:00pm yesterday. Both have their pros and cons but the biggest issue was whether or not I wanted to come home every night or be away for five days and nights and have two days off. 

Well, I didn't have to make the decision yesterday because neither job called like they said they would so now I have to go through this again.  I just want this to be over.  I still don't know which job to take and I wish that one of the jobs would just make the decision for me.  I wish one would just present me with something that I wouldn't be able to turn down. 

If anyone would like to offer me some input here is the site for the youth counselor position : http://www.eckerd.org/WorkforEYA/ycpositions.html  and the other is a bartending position that is located seconds from the house, will give me 40hrs a week, no benefits and offered to promote me to management after 6-9 months if I can prove myself.

Help me?

Today is the second weigh in for March.  I was hoping to see the same kinds of results as I did last week, but no such luck.  I went up 0.2 lbs rather than losing weight.  I suck.

This week I performed poorly.  I set weight loss goals that help to keep me on track for the week and I was only able to meet one of them.  They are as follows:

1. Lose 3 lbs (fail)

2. Drink 8 glasses of 8oz a day (fail, or at least I had to say fail because I didn't keep track of all my water)

3. Exercise every day that is marked on my calender (fail, although I did all my exercises just not on the assigned days)

4. Keep track of all my food points (fail)

5. Measure everything (fail)

6. Alcohol is only allowed 2 times a week (pass, although I drank way too much on St. Patty's day)

7. Only weigh in on Friday to keep from getting discouraged (fail, I can't seem to only weigh in once a week because I want to know every time I see my scale)

St. Patrick's day was a major fail for me and I think that is what caused my weigh loss to tank this week.  I had a friend over and we drank and eventually I just started eating things that I knew I shouldn't have been.  I added an extra 30 min of exercise to try and make up for the extra calories but it didn't seem to help.  I am really disappointed in myself.  I wish that I would have made better choices this week. 

I am really going to have to step it up in Week 3 so that I can get back on track.  I would really like to see a weight that starts with a 13 rather than a 14. 

Next week is going to be tricky as far as eating right and making sure that I get my exercise in.  I will be gone for 2 days due to a job interview.  I will be going down to Candor, NC to see if I will be the right fit for the youth counselor position at a outdoor therapeutic center for troubled youth.  I think that I should be able to make the right food choices, but I don't know if I will be able to determine the exact points because I will not be making the food myself.  I will also be unable to exercise according to my exercise plan because I will be working with the other youth counselors in order to understand what I will be doing if I choose to accept the job and the job is a 24/7 position.  I think that I will just move the days around so that I can still get all the workouts completed (they just won't be completed on the days marked on my calender). 

I will do this and I will see at least a 3 lbs lost...This is my promise to myself. 

Yesterday I didn't workout.  I was supposed to do 30 min. of cardio according to the exercise program that I am currently doing (which I talked about in my last post).  I am debating if I should do the 30 min. of cardio today along with the strength circuit or just do the cardio.  The exercise program looks like this:

                     FRI           SAT         SUN       MON      TUES    WED  THURS

Week 2   Circuit B    Cardio    Circuit A    Cardio    Circuit B   Off      Off

 If I just move everything over and change the cardio to today (Tues.) and then do Circuit B tomorrow (Wed.) then I will have still had two off days this week.  The plan says that you can change the order around as long as you don't do the circuits on back to back days. 

The next problem that I am facing is that I just found out that I will be working from 9:30 AM to 7:00 PM tomorrow.  So I am thinking if I do both the cardio and the circuit today I am still abiding by the rules because I am not doing the circuits back to back and in case I am tired when I get home tomorrow it won't matter since I have completed the exercise today. 

 Fun Side Note:

Yesterday was really nice outside so I decided to wear a dress that I wore to my eighth grade formal.  It is basically a beach dress.  It is a halter top with Hawaiian print on it.  It is tight and a little shorter than I would normally wear.  I wasn't sure if I had lost enough to have been wearing it.

Well, when I got off work, as I was walking out the door I heard someone behind me.  It was a little girl (maybe three or four) walking with her daddy.  When I looked behind me I saw the little girl tug on her daddy's sleeve and say, "Daddy, look at that lady...She is soooo pretty!" 

I am going to assume that she was talking about me and not the mannequins in the window at my job (I work at Ann Taylor).  It made my day!!

Well, yesterday was my weigh in day and I am happy to report that I now weigh 147.0 lbs.  That means that I have lost 4.6 lbs since last Friday.  That is amazing.  I went from only losing 4 lbs last month to losing over 4 lbs in a week!! I wonder if it has anything to do with eating poorly the week before last (by the way, didn't put anything on that week so it is not like the weight that I lost had to do with extra weight that I put on). 

I think some of the reason that I was able to drop so much so fast also has to do with the new exercise routine that I have been doing.  If you would like to see the workouts that I have been doing I welcome you to check out the site: http://www.womenshealthmag.com/best-body-ever/workout.php?1.  There are several exercise programs listed, but I am currently doing the 30 min Tone one, and I love it.  It is a lot of hard work though. 

McDonald's and Weight Watchers: Numbers Don't Add Up, but Pounds Might

Weight Watchers (WTW) and McDonald's (MCD) have teamed up in New Zealand to create three meals that carry the weight-loss program's seal of approval: a chicken wrap, a six-piece McNuggets order and the classic Filet-O-Fish. All three combos come with a water or diet soda, and the McNuggets and Filet-O-Fish also come with a side salad.

The partnership is made possible by "a number of significant and positive changes to our menu over the past few years," Mark Hawthorne, managing director of McDonald's New Zealand, said in a press release, citing several of the chain's moves, including its healthier frying oil and its decision to reduce sugar in its buns and sodium in its dipping sauces. Said Emma Stirling, nutritional advisor for Weight Watchers Australasia: "Our philosophy at Weight Watchers is that all food can be part of a healthy, balanced diet, taking into account portion control and frequency."

By that philosophy, following the program by eating at McDonald's isn't as strange an idea as it sounds. Weight Watchers dieters measure food consumption on a point scale that permits them to eat between 18 and 40 points of food per day. The three McDonald's Weight Watchers meals, according to Weight Watchers New Zealand, are each worth 6.5 points.

Check the Labels

But American Weight Watchers should be careful if they visit a Kiwi branch of McDonald's. Calorie and fat counts differ slightly between the two countries, and the Weight Watchers equation is different, too. In America, the Filet-O-Fish has 380 calories, 18 grams of fat per serving, and 2 grams of dietary fiber, totaling 8.7 Weight Watchers points. A six-piece order of McNuggets has 280 calories, 7 grams of fat, and 0 grams of dietary fiber, yielding 7 points (excluding dipping sauces, most of which add 0.7 points).

The chicken wrap is more promising. American McDonald's' don't sell the Kiwis' seared chicken sweet chili wrap, but our grilled chipotle barbecue snack wrap has 260 calories, 9 grams of fat, and 1 gram of fiber: 5.75 points. But add a salad, light dressing and a diet drink, and the points rise to 6.75 points for the chicken wrap, 8.7 points for the McNuggets, and 9.7 points for the Filet-O-Fish -- all a far cry from New Zealand McDonalds' claim of 6.5 points.

But McDonald's New Zealand's nutritional information site lists the seared chicken sweet chili wrap with a whopping 374 calories and 10 grams of fat, the Filet-O-Fish sandwich with 330 calories and 15 grams of fat, and the six-piece McNugget meal with 269 calories and 19 grams of fat. Any differences between New Zealand's nutritional statistics and ours don't account for the apparent difference in point counts.

Different Countries, Different Points

Why are the point counts lower in New Zealand? One reason may be the calculation. The American equation factors in calories, fat and fiber, but Weight Watchers Australia & New Zealand uses the U.K. points equation, which doesn't factor in fiber content. Instead, it uses a proprietary variable to represent portion size, which injects some uncertainty into the Weight Watchers equation.

McDonald's and Weight Watchers New Zealand representatives acknowledge the difference between the two equations but decline to explain how they calculated the portion-size variable. And because that number determines the ultimate points calculation, it's impossible for us to verify the accuracy of the McDonald's point counts.

TVNZ reports that McDonald's paid Weight Watchers an undisclosed sum for its endorsement, a deal that's reminiscent of a 2007 campaign in which McDonald's paid the Australian Heart Foundation about $275,000 (A$330,000) to approve of nine McDonald's' meals. The message seems to be that, when it comes to deals between Weight Watchers and McDonalds in New Zealand, the most important variable may be the sum on the check.

Taken From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/company-news/mcdonalds-and-weight-watchers-numbers-dont-add-up-but-pounds/19381721/?icid=main|aim|dl5|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailyfinance.com%2Fstory%2Fcompany-news%2Fmcdonalds-and-weight-watchers-numbers-dont-add-up-but-pounds%2F19381721%2F