January: Week 1 in Review

Good week, people! Good week.

• I worked out 6 of the last 7 days! Of those 6 days I jogged 5 days.
• I, indeed, used all of my flex points but I did not exceed my limit. In other words, I used NONE of my activity allotment.

I was able to eat 3 meals out this week too without overdoing it. Two of those meals were at Subway and one was out for sushi.

I'm not sure if this has been a conscious strategy or not, but last week I was super good and strict for the first part of the week and then I gradually treated myself to my flex points as the week went on. It's definitely way easier to not be under such harsh constraints heading into the weekend. It's also way easier to eat more reasonably when I put myself to bed early! It's not always practical, but it's so nice.

If I can take this week and multiply it by 4, I will surely have a successful January. Can it be done? I'm sure as hell going to try. I cannot wait until I have to buy new jeans! Even if they're just a crappy interim pair. I want my current size 12's to be so roomy it's ridiculous.

January: Day 6

I'm feeling ok about myself again. It was a little shaky over the 4 day span surrounding New Year's, but I'm back and grounded.

As bad as it is for my self esteem to feel my pants getting tighter after an extended splurge, it feels so good when my swollen belly deflates a little and ample breathing room in my clothing magically reappears.

I'm committed to re-establishing my more structured regimen from the days of yore. In the first 6 days of this week I've gotten to workout 5 times and run 4 of those times. Yesterday when I went to jog, it would have been my 5th in a row, i just couldn't. My legs were so heavy and I had virtually no energy. I guess I deserve a day to rest every now and then.

The key is really going to be keeping it up. If I do, I think the added cardio could really help boost progress. And I really like progress.

January: Day 1

OK, so here's the deal with my "new plan". The Weight Watchers food tracking system is working. I had a brutally honest friend of mine accuse me of losing weight the other day. Score! So I guess I keep plugging away. Because of the holidays and traveling and how my tracking weeks start on Mondays, I'm going to consider this Day 1. (I had only wanted to take one day off for NYE, but it sort of morphed into 4-ish...)

I think the real new part of this is that I'm gonna hold myself accountable for monthly goals rather than 100 day goals, although 3 months is about 100 days anyway... Like I've mentioned before, I'm going to lose (at least) 5 pounds in January. I'm trying to decide if I should weigh myself more than once a month. I know that I can resist the urge, and this way I'm dropping much bigger amounts per weigh in. We'll see how it goes. Maybe seeing weekly progress will help motivate me.

• I want to really, truly, honest-to-god minimize eating out. It just makes tracking what I eat so much more difficult. I think my only exceptions will be things that are easy to count, like Subway or sushi and only in a bind!
• I'm still staying off caffeine, I'm not sure if staying off artificial sweeteners is all that important...I don't think I necessarily feel better and it was brought to my attention that sugar is not very good for you. Replacing my splenda with sugar avoids adding unnecessary chemicals to my body but is the alternative better? Using nothing would probably be ideal, but for now I think maybe I'll use splenda sparingly.
• I'm pumping up the cardio. Ideally I'd like to do (at least) 5 days a week and burn (at least) 500 calories each time I'm there. This is totally do-able and I've done it before. With a mix of elliptical and jogging I can get it all done in an hour. Once I build my runs back up I can probably bang it out in 45 minutes.

So, all in all, maybe not that much is different. I did pretty well (I think) in December, I can only imagine how much I weighed back after Thanksgiving. I need to work super hard now to feel good later. But I also need to take each day on as it's own individual challenge and knock them down one by one.

Day 32

OK, people. There's a new plan.

I weighed myself this morning and I was not super happy. I wasn't sad like I thought I could be, but I was not happy. I can only imagine what I would have seen 32 days ago. Eeeep.

After a few long and involved conversations with my trainer we have made a deal that I will lose 5 lbs. every month for January, February, and March. That's serious business. It's doable, but it's serious.

I bought new running shoes today and I am going to get back into running shape starting Monday. I need to fit aerobic workouts into my schedule at least 5 times a week.

Maybe I need to eat less fruit? I know this new Weight Watchers is working, I just don't know how fast. My clothes fit better and I can see my face thinning out. I could probably keep on doing what I'm doing and see if the extra aerobic pushes me over the edge. I wonder if I could go all of January without eating any meals out...

I'm taking this weight off and I'm taking it off for good. I want this bad and I want this for real.

Day 28: Week in Review

I am so curious to know if I'm losing weight. I'm tempted to jump on the scale but I don't think I'm ready yet!

This week I had 4 packets of splenda (2 decaf soy lattes).

This week I had 1 half-caf cup of coffee.

This week I only used 1 of my activity points.

This week I discovered Nestle After Eight thin mints for 1 point and packaged rice krispie treats are only 2 points.

This week I SURVIVED CHRISTMAS!

This week had it's challenges but all in all it was pretty smooth sailing. Next week, however, is a different story. I'm thinking of taking New Year's Eve off. Not the whole day, just dinner, dessert, and drinks. I'm going to continue the rest of the week, before and after, like normal. Maybe I can attempt to save up flexes and activity points even though I don't plan on remotely trying to count on Friday night. I'm not gonna go on a free for all though. The goal is to eat and enjoy but not to overeat and make myself sick. Indulge don't overindulge. This historically has been a problem for me, I've definitely been one to go off the deep end. Resist. Don't throw this 4 weeks of hard work down the drain!

4 weeks!?!?! Damn! I've been doing this for 4 whole weeks? It hasn't felt that long! Geez.

Day 26

This morning I woke up and I felt good. Good like I think this might be working good.

Day 22: Week in Review

For whatever reason I did not do a week in review last week. I think I was too flustered, frazzled, and flabbergasted.

A few confessions:

• This week I had a caffeine free diet pepsi! Splurge! And the week before I had some splenda in my (decaffeinated tea). I have been using sugar and honey for the majority of my sweetening purposes and have been a-ok doing so.

• I have not been working out as much as I would like to. I know, for me especially, a lot of this weight loss is gonna be about the food but I really would like to exercise more. It's been really super hard to fit the kind of time into my schedule that I would like and I want to get back into running shape.

• The same thing happened at the end of this week as last week. I get down to the end of my week with big meals out planned (I'd like to avoid these altogether, but 'tis the holiday season...). Now, with the Weight Watchers plan you can earn exercise points back which I haven't been tracking because I'd really like not to use them. So, I work really hard to make good choices at the end of my week, I try to track my points to the best of my knowledge, and end up going over. With a few tweaks and back-logging all the activity points I can remember, I sorta make it at the end of the week. This is not how I would like to operate: using every possible smidgen of a point that I can conjure up. I know it's better than not trying at all...it's just so so so much easier to eat at home!

I think the key, especially until the holidays are all over, is to keep on truckin. Perfection is not always an option but pretty damn good is almost as nice. I want to EAT IN! I want to not use all my flex points!

I had some success this week too! I survived a holiday dinner out by summoning up every ounce of my will power and ordering just a shrimp cocktail and cup of chicken soup. And that was it. But now I shall move forward full steam ahead leaving this week behind and ambitious for the next! Mush!