The Big Ten

This morning's weigh in marked the achievement of my first major goal -- to lose 10% of my starting body weight. With a starting weight of 237 pounds, that means losing 23.7 pounds. Making my goal 213.3 pounds. I've been hovering just shy of it for the last four weeks, making barely any progress. So this past week, I pumped my week full of extra exercise and a high-fat treat on the weekend (sounds counter-intuitive, but it really helps as long as the portion size is reasonable and I have the weight watchers points to cover it.)

And . . . voila! This morning's weigh in -- 210.6 (making last week a 3.6 pound loss, nearly my best week ever) and putting my total lost at 26.4 pounds!

Now that I've met the Big 10% goal, I must consider what is to come. My final goal weight is under much debate among my healthcare professionals . . . but for now I'll set it as the heaviest among the choices -- I can always set a new goal when I get there. This makes my End Goal - 165 pounds (with options).

26.4 pounds down, 45.6 pounds to go . . . that is totally do-able! Even if my rate of loss slows (though it's only a grand average of 1.1 pounds per week since I started in May) I should still be able to achieve my End Goal by next summer. I think that's pretty exciting!

Recipe: Fish Tacos

With weight watchers in full swing here at our home, we're trying all sorts of new recipes. This one was a big hit, so I thought I'd share.

FISH TACOS (my own original recipe)

Ingredients:

3 tilapia fillets

2 tsp olive oil

2 Tbsp corn meal

salt & pepper to taste

6 mini flour tortillas (6" size)

1 generous cup of shredded cabbage

1 lime (don' substitute with bottled lime juice, it just doesn't work for this recipe!!)

Directions:

1. Spray non-stick pan with olive oil mist and heat to medium-high heat. Rubbed tilapia with olive oil. Mix corn meal with salt (I use kosher salt) and pepper (add some red or white pepper, too, if you like spicy!). Sprinkle evenly over the tilapia.

2. Cook fish in pan, gently breaking it apart into flakes as it cooks.

3. Heat up the tortillas (I do mine directly on the rack of a 350 degree oven for a minute, but you can drop them in a hot dry skillet, or microwave with wet paper towels, however you like.)

4. Divide the shredded cabbage among the 6 tortillas. (I buy the bag of "coleslaw mix" which has carrots, too. To be clear, just the veggies, not actual coleslaw with dressing!)

5. Divide the cooked, shredded fish over the cabbage. Squeeze generously with wedges of fresh lime. Serve immediately.

With my ingredients and measurements, it came out to about 11 points for three tacos (half the batch) which was a HUGE serving. I think I could divide this into 2 taco servings (for about 8 or 9 points) and be just as happy and full at the end of the meal.

It's Working!

To date, I have lost 9.8 pounds, and Matthew has lost 12.6 pounds.

Woo Hoo!!!!

We're starting to notice a difference, too. Matt's belt, and my bra, are both cinched a notch tighter now. My pants are starting to feel loose, and Matt's shirts are, too!

And So It Begins . . .

Tomorrow, Matthew and I will start Weight Watchers. We did this together four years ago, with tremendous success (roughly speaking, I lost 50 pounds, and Matthew lost 70!) We're doing it together again, and looking forward to similar spectacular results.

And you, my dear friends and family, can follow our progress if you like (no, not on Twitter!) I will set up a widget on the left hand side of the blog, that tracks our weight loss progress. Encouragement is always welcome. If I can talk Matthew into it, there will be monthly photos, as well.

So stay tuned . . . and get out your foam fingers, pom-poms, and other cheering paraphernalia!