Lighten My Life: Two Helpful Tools

Part of Lightening my Life includes lightening my body.  While pregnant with Baby A, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes.  Along with testing my blood sugar four times a day and giving myself insulin shots, I got to significantly alter my diet and limit and monitor my carb intake.  The result was actually losing weight while I was pregnant instead of gaining!  It was great once I had the baby, but the diet was so constrictive that I felt the need to "indulge" once I was no longer pregnant, and gained back most of the weight that I lost...pretty dumb I know!

So now, I am much more likely to develop Type 2 Diabetes and to fight that, I need to lose that weight....AGAIN.  I could beat myself up here about how ridiculous it was of me to put the weight back on after I had suffered to lose it, but what's the point - it's back and it needs to go...again!

I am using two tools right now to help me on my goal to lighten my body: Weight Watchers and E-Mealz.

I had great success with Weight Watchers about 8 years ago, so I knew if I could just get back on track with the program, it would work.  Today is my day to weigh in, but since we're having a snow day here in Central Texas, I just weighed at home - down 6.8 pounds so far since the beginning of the year.  This makes me happy - and LIGHTER!!  I'm sure Weight Watchers is not for everyone, but it really helps me to track what I am eating and be thoughtful about what I am choosing to put in my body each day.  It helps me make better choices, and also allows me to treat myself and "spend" my points on what is important to me - like the peppermint mocha creamer in my coffee each morning. (So happy that this is going to be offered year-round!!)  This time around, I am using the e-tools and also have the app loaded on my ipod touch to help keep me on track during the day. 

Of course, one of the struggles with changing the way I eat, is that I have a family to feed, and they won't eat salad day in and day out!  So that's where the E-mealz comes in.  I have to say, this has been more helpful than I can possibly explain here.  Hubby and I had gotten SO TIRED of the "what do you want to have for dinner?" conversation every day.  I forget where I learned about E-mealz, but I'm sure it was on a blog somewhere, and it has saved the day!  They provide 7 dinners with grocery lists and recipes, so worrying about dinner is a thing of the past.  There are family programs and even menus for 2 people. 

And the best part? They are also designed to REDUCE your grocery bills!  Dave Ramsey endorses the program because it really does save you money.  Their menus work in conjunction with the grocery store sales, and in a lot of cases, the same ingredients are used throughout the week to maximize your grocery trips.  Our grocery bills have gone down about $25 per week since we signed up last summer.  We used to use the Low Fat Any Store (because our grocery store is not included - imagine what we could save if it was!), but have switched to the Weight Watchers Points Plus Any Store plan since I started back w/ Weight Watchers.  So this menu helps to lighten not only my body, but also my attitude, because the stress of grocery shopping and deciding what's for dinner are gone.  The recipes are easy to prepare, and good too - we've only found a couple things that we didn't like.  Plus they include side dishes that are simple and healthy. 

So as I progress in Lightening My Life this year, I am thankful that I have these 2 tools to help me out along the way - it's not something I can do on my own!!