Motivation

Earlier tonight one of my favorite people called and she asked me to be one of her bridesmaids.  Of course I said yes!  I am so excited and can't wait to celebrate her special day with her and I am honoured she asked.  So in May 2009, I will be flying down to Wisconsin and being in her wedding party.  I can't wait!

But...being in a weddding means a few things.  

1)  I need to save for a bridesmaids dress, plane fare, hotel etc.

2)  I need to get on this weightloss train and be committed instead of half-assed.  

Last November, one of the reasons I joined WW was because I was in a wedding earlier this summer.  It was good motivation, to fit into the dress.  So I hope this time around I will be just as motivated.

Starting tomorrow I will be back onto my tracking consistently, drinking my water and working out.  I am super excited and know I can be at my goal weight before the wedding.  Yay for motivation!!

Spinach salad please...ummm...this is the salad?!?!?

In my weight watchers meeting this week we discussed the people who sabotage us.  Now, I truly believe no one can sabotage me, except me.  However; there is one friend of mine who everytime I am around her I want to eat unhealthy.  She is very picky about restaurants to eat at and very picky about her food.  She pretty much loves cheese bread, fries, and crispy chicken.  That's it.  So I struggle going out for dinner with her, because I see what she orders and I get jealous and want it to!  So I order it, usually eat the whole thing, and then feel miserable.

Last night, she asked if I wanted to go out for dinner, I hesitated, but she suggested an italian restaurant.  Not the most points friendly, but I knew I couldn't have fries!  So we go.  I order a linguine pasta in white wine sauce, with prawns.  I decided to order a spinach salad as well, thinking I need vegetables with my meal and it will help fill me so I don't eat my entire order of pasta because I was very hungry.

My spinach salad arrives.  I don't know about any of you, but with a spinach salad I expect cucumbers, tomatoes, maybe some peppers, just normal veggies.  I wish I had my camera to take a picture of it.  But it was plateful of spinach, drenched in a creamy dressing and parmesan cheese.   No other veggies.  Literally just spinach.  Ummm...did I really just pay $6.50 for this?!?!  Yes.  Yes I did.  Mental note, next time read more carefully the descriptions of salads, and I have made the decision to no longer go out for dinner with my friend.  I can have dinner at home and then go out for coffee with her after.  Hopefully the rest of the weekend is better!

One year later...

Lately, I have not felt like blogging, or reading blogs, or exercising, or doing anything.  I think it has something to do with the fact that I am sick.  I took today off from work because I was feeling miserable yesterday and this morning when I woke up I felt no better.  I feel like I have a head cold and my brain is cloudy and unable to function.  Not good.  But I am beginning to feel a little better with all the rest today.  But I don't know what my rut is about in terms of lack of exercising and blogging.  I figure maybe I just need to take a little time for myself and get things done that need to be done (aka: Christmas cards, grad school application, organizing closet).  Hopefully I will get back on track.  I am still tracking what I am eating and trying to get my 8 glasses of water in.  My gym pass has expired but this weekend I am going to go and renew it and I think that will make me feel better and hold me more accountable.  I know this is just a phase that I have experienced before and I am sure I will experience again in this journey and I just have to acknowledge it and move forward.

In other news, November 21, 2007, I began my weight watchers journey.  I imagined what I would look like a year later, I would be either at my goal weight, or at least in my healthy weight range.  And although I am neither of those yet, I am still 26 pounds smaller than I was one year ago!  And that is amazing to me, I don't know if I ever truly believed that I could lose weight and keep it off.  I have had lots of ups and downs this year, both on and off the scale, but I am still doing it, I haven't given up.  I am ready to enter the next year of my life, equally dedicated to a healthy lifestyle, and weight-loss.

Accountability Time

This past week I lost 0.8 pounds.  I was VERY happy!  I know I need to really be more conscious of what and how much I am eating in order to continue going down on the scale.  For this week my plan is to really keep track of my eating, and hold myself accountable.  I also am going to get my water intake under control.  Goal is 8 glasses a day and I know I can do that.

In order to keep myself accountable, I need to acknowledge how my weekend eating went.  I struggle with my weekend eating, I feel I am able to "let go" a little because of a long week, or whatever the case is.  Also, since my weigh-in day is on Thursdays, the weekend is at the beginning of my week and therefore I think I have the rest of the week to make up for it!  Clearly this type of thinking has gotten me into trouble.  So here is a recap of my weekend eating (and it is not pretty).

Friday: coffee, orange, chicken, fries, bbq chicken caesar wrap.  Where are the veggies?  I don't know either.

Saturday: tea, oatabix cereal, milk, banana, chicken, rice, ham, yam fries, a few nachos, many drinks of sangria, thai chicken wrap.  Again, no veggies.  I think I am beginning to see a pattern here.

Sunday:  coffee, salad (yay!), soup with pasta and beef in it, bread sticks, a giant chocolate covered raisin (so yummy...)

So I know I need to work on my veggie and fruit intake on the weekends.  I think I get lazy and don't plan my meals as much as I do during the week.  So that is going to be my goal for this upcoming weekend, to really make an effort to pre-plan, and make sure I am getting enough nutrients in my body.  So here is to another week of learning to make healthy choices!

A Wake-Up Call

This post... Progress Evaluation Time  completely spoke to me.  Angie is right.  I joined the challenge to lose weight, to motivate myself, to have others motivate me, to know my excuses and still work through them.  Losing weight is hard to do when I make excuses all the time of why I didn't eat properly, why I didn't track my points, or why I didn't go to the gym.  These are just excuses and yes life comes up sometimes and circumstances happen that are beyond my control but I need to push through those.  I need to make weight-loss a priority.  I need to schedule my time better to pack healthy meals and snacks, and to make time for going to the gym.  If I can't make it to the gym, then I need to make time everyday to do some form of exercise.  Even if that is only walking for 30mins, or doing weights and crunches for half an hour.  I know I can make time daily to do that everyday.

When I began BLBE I weighed 138.4 pounds.  My weigh in on Thursday, I weighed 137.  In 7 weeks I have lost 1.4 pounds.  What have I been doing!  And the saddest part is I have lost more than that throughout the challenge, but I have lost weight, gained it back, lost it again.  All in all I have managed to lose 6.6 pounds on the challenge and gain 5.2 of them back.  CRAZY!!  

There are 7 weeks remaining on this challenge and I am committing to giving 110% of myself.  On the days I am tired from work I will still fit exercise into my life.  On days I am hungry and want to eat everything in sight, I will take a step back, evaluate, drink my water and make a healthy meal.

I will be in my healthy weight range or damn close when this challenge ends.  My goal has always been to enter 2009 in my healthy range.  I am the only one who can make this happen.  My loss, my gain, it's all from the amount of honest work I have put in.  The last 7 weeks I have been wishy-washy and these next 7 I am going to kick some serious ass and get this weight off my body!

Why oh why do I let myself get carried away?

After my weigh in this week, where I gained 3.2 pounds (crap) I decided I really need to focus on what is important.  Why am I spending money at ww week after week if I really don't make a good effort all the time?  It is different if I ate properly and excerised and I gained.  But when I don't do that, and when I have cookies the day before my weigh in...that is a problem.  And I don't even really like cookies?!?!?  Well not that kind at least, so why did I have 7.  

So this week I am committed to eating properly, drinking 2 litres of water a day and tracking everything.  I did well yesterDAY, however; then I had a halloween party to go to.  And the party consisted of lots of snack food: chips and dip, bite sized sausage rolls, cupcakes, sugar cookies (my favorite type of cookie), and tons of candy!  Not to mention all the drinks I consumed...

I did go to the gym yesterday and I will go tomorrow, so although I am not sure how many points I ate last night, I am just going to say all my flex points are gone for the week and just stick with my daily points limit.  I am so close to my healthy weight range, I need to buckle down and give this 110% of my effort.  No more grabbing a bite of something here and there, no more eating chocolate candy with the rationale "it's Halloween!"  I don't usually go for chocolate during the rest of the year, why would I need it now?  Or if I do crave chocolate, I need to remember to buy some really good chocolate, because the halloween ones are not satisfying, which leads me to eat more.

Anyway, those are my goals for this week.  Hold myself accountable.