#SaturdaySkinny: It's Weight Watchers Netherlands Time

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Ohhh hheeyyy friends... look who's checking in from Amster-freakin-dam!

IT'SSS MMEEEEE!!!!!!!

What. Is. Up. People? :)

Can we tell I am a tad excited to have the time to sit down and write a blog post?

It has been a tad busy since landing in Amsterdam on the 14th of January and I have been itching to get some time to update my little slice of the internet.

Thankfully we have successfully:

  • Collected the dogs after their international trip
  • Got our Netherlands citizenship numbers
  • Opened up our bank accounts
  • Registered with city hall
  • Signed a lease on an apartment
  • Bought a washer-dryer
  • Hung up 1/2 the blinds in the apartment
  • Got one light fixture up and running

Oh and I took a little work trip to Southern Germany and made it through despite wishing every second of it I spoke German. It gets old asking people to please switch to English so I could follow what was going on. Ya know?

BUT did you see that big news in there of us finding an apartment?????

The management company even gave us this little gift of bubbly. I can't wait to pop it open the first night we are both in the new apartment. While we are spending more on the apartment than I wanted to, it was just completely refurbished with brand-new hardwood floors, a back garden area for the pups, on the ground floor and in a great location.

And yes that is a pic of the guest room that we hope all of you come and use! ;)

Now in addition to all of the adult things listed above, both the wife and I signed up for Weight Watchers!!!

As you can imagine, there is a fair amount of Dutch being spoken here in Amsterdam. So thankfully we were able to find the 1 English meeting in the country. It is Saturday on 10:30am. So I've gone from #TruthTuesday to #FaceItFriday to now #SaturdaySkinny. Now it isn't like skinny as in weight, but as what's the skinny. I had a hard time coming up with a new hashtag, but this is what you got from me. :P 

While a majority of the signage might be in Dutch, they do have English versions of things from the UK program. Plus the overall message is still the same...

While there are English pamphlets, we've enjoyed grabbing the Dutch versions as well to help with our studies to learn the language. Also Google Translate is our best friend.

The wife and I joined on the 20th of January and we downloaded the app right away. Now we could've kept our US version of the app, but we would be missing all of the local foods and products that would be in the Dutch version of the app. So I'm planning on keeping my US version so I don't lose any of my old weight info, but track in the Dutch version. Again another chance to help learn Dutch words. :)

While our weights are registered in kilograms, I have been keeping track in pounds as well. I was nervous to face the scale on Day 1 as I knew it would be bad. It is a number I haven't seen in about 6 years. :( But it was my new Day 1.

Now 3 weeks in I am down 5.4 pounds and already feeling a sense of control back in my life. It really helps having the wife by my side. She is down about 4 pounds so far. I am determined to be back at my WW goal by my birthday (Sept 16) because we will be at #DisneylandParishalf weekend right after that. I want to feel lean and mean in my costumes.

The wife and I have been meal planning, grocery shopping and deciding together on one splurge meal out a week. It really is a lot easier when we are both aligned on the same goal. 

I gained 1 lb this past week and I figured that would happen. There were a few meals in Germany where they didn't even offer any sort of veggie option. I did choose salads when possible and loaded up on fruit at breakfast.

Tiny victories!

Luckily this week we don't have any social plans and will be able to control almost all of our choices.

On Sundays we have been going to Rocycle Studios spin class together. It has been the only activity I've been able to fit in so far and I cannot WAIT for my Peloton bike to get here.

Yesterday we hit up Dunkin' Donuts afterwards for a little slice of home to celebrate 3 weeks of being here. While I had my banana before the class, I wish I had kept it for after. It was one of the best Rocycle workouts I've had... and I was hungry! I succumbed to the donut...

But while the donut was 12pts and could fit in our week, what we hadn't planned on was the barista adding the wrong flavoring to the coffee. While we wanted sugar free, she added the swirl syrup which is loaded in sugar. :( So our 1pt coffee turned into 9pts. I shoud've spoken up, but I sometimes really hate doing that and she didn't know. So we sucked it up, learned for the next time and tracked our 21pt treat. 

This was a perfect opportunity where the WW topic came up. I wanted to beat myself up for having the donut, but instead I talked to myself like my best friend would... and said "Enjoy it, track it and move on!"

Our leader who is this adorable moving who is just learning English made us these cute reminders of why we should be kind to ourselves. I'm keeping it right near my work laptop to remind myself to be kind to myself...

Here's to a great week and to posting more on social media because I miss all of you so much!!!

So what have I missed? Brag my friends!