Obstacles

The biggest obstacle in weight loss is...YOU!  This is probably the most difficult lesson to learn but the more I think about it, the more I realize it is true.  Only you decide what food goes in your mouth.  Only you decide when and how to exercise.

Granted, there are outside influences, but you have to figure out how to work around those things.  It is up to you to find the time, or take the better food choices.  If you're at a party or a bab or any event where there is food, you choose what and how much to eat.  Nobody is holding you down and forcing the food past your lips.

Own it!  Take responsibility for your action or inaction.

We often put the obstacles in our way.  We make excuses.  And we're really good at making excuses, aren't we?

But on the flip side, you are also responsible for your successes.  Take credit when you succeed because you did it.  Nobody else did it for you.

And most importantly, don't beat yourself up.  Give yourself credit for the good decisions you made and acknowledge the not so good.

Weekly update

The weigh-in this week was ok.  I lost the smidge that I'd gained last week.  That was fine.  As much as I'd love to lose huge amounts of weight every week, the reality is - that it won't happen.  I didn't put the weight on overnight and it's not going to come off overnight.

I don't think I'll ever be a size 2 and I'm really ok with that.  One of the reasons I want this fight is to be healthy.  I believe my healthy is nowhere near a size 2.  I also want to be strong.  I want to live for a long time and to do that, I need to take care of this body.  It's the only one I'm going to get.  In general, I am pretty healthy.  I've never spent a night in the hospital (except when I was born.)  I don't have diabetes - and I want to do what I can to make sure I don't ever have it.  (I know that Type 1 Diabetes is a completely different thing and had nothing to do with diet and exercise.)

I turned 44 last month and I still feel like I'm in my 20's.  And I want to keep feeling that way.  I want to keep enjoying life and it will be so much easier to do that if I drop some of this weight.

Write it down!

It's been a little over 2 weeks since I started writing down everything that I eat.  You would think it would get easier over time, but the opposite has been true for me.  The first week, I had no trouble writing everything down.  As I got into the second week, I would forget, but then catch up.  And now, I feel like I have to force myself to do it.  But, I am still doing it.  I'm just hoping I'm not forgetting anything.

I'm also improving on my workouts again.  I'm not going to say that it's not a struggle too, because it is.  But I'm having a little easier time convincing myself to do it.  I go for a walk most days, and when I don't get out to walk, I try to make sure I run.  Ok, now I know you're all confused.  How am I running if I'm not going out for a walk.  I actually run in my living room.  I jog in place.  It all started because of the Wii Fit.  They have running workouts where you jog in place.  So I do that.  I actually count in my head and usually do sets of 100.  Last night I did a 150, a 100 and then a 200.

I try to do little extra things.  Like when I'm standing at the photocopier at work - I'll march in place.  Perfect time to sneak in some extra movement.  Washing my hands, march in place.  Just find those little times when your feet could be moving.  Are you going to lose huge amounts of weight just by walking in place - probably not, but it gets you moving and every little bit helps.

Busy week!

It's been a pretty busy week so I haven't had much chance to post with updates.  I attended a shortened WW meeting this morning as I had to be in the office early.  I was up a smidge (.2) when I weighed in, but I'm fully aware of what that is and I know it will come off again next week.

I've been very busy with work, but am still writing down everything that I'm eating.  And I did get more activity in this week, including several walks to the and at the track with hubby.  Overall, I'm feeling more positive on this new, renewed goal.  I'm toying with the idea of setting a weight loss goal, but I've never been very successful with that.  Maybe I'll start small.

Let's see...it's August 14th.  We have getaway plans for Oct. 9th, which is 8 weeks from now.  How about if I shoot for a 5 pound weight loss goal before then?  That seems reasonable.  Maybe I'll aim for 5 pound goals.  Eventually they'll add up to something great.

I survived the first week!

It hasn't been an easy week.  There is a lot of stress in my life right now, but I committed to writing down everything I ate and I held to that.  I did not count the points, but I wrote it down and I definitely found that it made me stop and think before I ate something.

I'm not going to claim that I made all the best choices.  I did have a company event last Friday, but I chose small portions - tastings of the things I wanted.  And then we left the room where the food was.  I did go out to Wahlburgers with a friend on Sunday and I fully enjoyed my burger with onion strings.  But I didn't overindulge in anything.

I also took a walk several nights this week, so that was more added activity.

I know that just doing these things will not get me down to where I want to be, but it's a one step at a time process.  I'll keep doing these things and make other changes too.  This week I'm going to try to get in more activity.

So what was the end result of Week 1...down 4.4 lbs.

Today's weight:  219.8

I'm going to try to make sure I never go over the 220 mark again.

Day 1 is in the books!

Day 1 of this new or restarted journey is done and we're into day 2.  So how did it go?

Not too bad.  I wrote down everything that I ate.  I never think to write down what I drink because that's almost always iced tea with Splenda and water.  And that is all I had, so no WW points involved.  I'm not going to bore you with all the details about what I ate, but I know I made some good choices and there was a good amount of fruit...but not nearly enough vegetables.

As for being active, I accomplished that.  I walked at lunch as I usually do and then after work, I took a walk up to the apartment office to drop off our rent check.  This might not sound like much, but since the office is at a different complex which is about a mile away, it was a good walk.  So for the first time in I don't know how long, my Weight Watchers ActiveLink exceeded 100%.  Would you look at that, 116% to be exact and that was 9 activity points earned.

I know that I should, but I don't really track points.  I know, you're wondering how I can be on Weight Watchers and not track the points.  The truth is, it's hard for me.  For instance, yesterday, we had a lunch meeting.  Lunch was brought in and because it's a little local restaurant, they don't actually have a nutrition fact sheet that I can reference, so I couldn't really figure out the points.  I know, I should probably try to estimate based on what was in the sandwich, but I didn't.  Baby steps!  I'm just proud of the fact that I wrote it all down.  Maybe next week I'll actually track the points for everything.  We shall see!  No promises yet.  Let me get through the weekend first.

Today could be a challenge!  It's Friday and at my office, they always bring breakfast in.  So this is the day that I tend to really jump off the wagon...but I keep it in my sights.  Breakfast is bagels, fruit and pastry from Panera.  I'll have a bagel with spread and fruit.  Then we have our company summer outing at the Museum of Science with a catered lunch.  All I know is that it's a BBQ themed lunch, so we'll see what they have.  Keep your fingers crossed that I can control myself and make good choices.

And then we have dinner!  That should be a real challenge too because I'm going to be at Gillette Stadium for a special Patriots practice and we all know that stadium/ballpark foods are not exactly Weight Watchers friendly.  And because this is a smaller event, they won't have all the stands open anyway, so it may really limit my choices.  And no, I can't bring food in.

I guess this will be a good day to see how I handle some real challenges!