Thursday, April 22, 2010

Some successes.

I recuperated my loss this week. Or my gain. Um, yeah. I gained .8 pounds last week, but this week I lost 1.8. I call that a success.

Speaking of successes, I have finished two days of the Couch to 5K program. That means I'm running. Okay, jogging. Okay, mostly walking. But I'm definitely moving. I'm a little scared to do the third day's workout because that means I'll have finished Week 1, and then it'll be Week 2. Part of me thinks we (Sarah and I) should do Week 1 again. I guess we'll see how Day 3 goes.

I can't believe I'm doing this. Running, or hopefully someday running. I never thought it'd be an activity I'd care anything about. To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about it just yet, but as I was telling a friend, I can really get my head around walking / running / jogging because it doesn't require specialized equipment (really) or a membership. It's adaptable to different environments, so there are very few excuses to be made for not running. Although I'm sure I'll come up with a few. Right now, I'd say my most likely excuse is fear of the program, that it'll progress too quickly for me. That's ridiculous, though. As Sarah and I discussed when we decided to walk one of the jogging intervals yesterday, we're not doing this to impress anyone. We're doing this for ourselves. So if I do need to repeat Week 1 before moving on, so be it.

In other news:
  • I'm still drinking mostly water. I still don't think I'm drinking enough. I'm probably only getting two liters in on a good day, maybe more. I can tell that the running has made me thirstier, though.
  • I'm also upping my fruits and vegetables. Petite baby carrots are awesome.
  • I'm going to try Almond Breeze as a milk alternative. Not that I've been having trouble with milk. Just thought I'd branch out.
  • I've been tracking all of my food and activity points.
  • My clothes are about to fall off. Seriously. I need to go shopping, but I don't know how to shop economically for transition clothes.
  • I did take my measurements a few days ago. Maybe I don't know what I'm doing, but the inches really aren't all that different than they were when I started. But that can't be right. See previous bullet.
  • I love love love Eggo Nutrigrain Low-Fat waffles for breakfast. Due to the Eggo shortage, it's been sort of difficult to get my hands on them. I've been without them for, like, two weeks now. Tonight, though, Kroger had them so I bought two boxes. Jackpot!

Okay, I need to go pack my lunch. Lately, I've been taking turkey and cheese (Laughing Cow!) on a sandwich thin and barbecue Baked Lays. I've added the carrots. I've been taking a Weight Watchers mini red velvet bar (one point), but I ran out today and decided to nix it. I also take an orange every day to eat during my planning period. Except today, there was a planning period meeting and it just didn't happen. I'm taking it back tomorrow.

P.S. Is it just me, or would it be nice if I blogged about something besides my weight, physical activity, and eating habits? Yeah, I thought so.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

A mole hill.

So it happened when I weighed in today.

I'd gained.

I know it's just .8 pounds, but it is a gain. I mean, I knew it was coming. There's no such thing as not having a setback or plateau. I just wasn't expecting it this week. I wouldn't have been surprised by a gain the past few weeks, but this week, I felt like I really had it together. I exercised a few times, which is a few times more than usual. I really stuck to water. And I've tracked the good, the bad, and the ugly. And the truth is that, after the insanity of this past weekend, there really hasn't been any ugly. In other words, I've been doing a pretty good job meeting the challenges I set for myself this week.

That's why I was surprised by the gain.

But I need to reevaluate. I need to realize that the surprise should be that I didn't have a gain sooner. After last week's unexpected five-pound loss, I think I can handle this tiny gain. After all, I've kept off most of those five pounds. Even after some really poor eating choices over the weekend. A realistic weigh-in is what I needed, now that I think about it. A reminder that I have to work for this.

So that's my goal now. Just to stick with it. To keep on keeping on. I don't want to fall into a negative mindset, and I know I'm vulnerable. Part of me thinks that I tried to make positive changes and it availed nothing. But it's just one week. Less than, really. It's not like drinking water and being active caused the gain.

When I got home from the meeting, I ate dinner -- leftover Chicken Enchilada Casserole from the new Hungry Girl 1-2-3 cookbook, which I will have to discuss later. I tracked it. I went for a walk. I filled up my water bottle.

I feel good about this.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Three challenges.

Tracking. I am doing my darnedest to track everything I eat, even if I don't like what it does to the numbers. After eating festival food yesterday, things are ugly. But that's okay. I now know that I've blown all of my "flex" points. And then some. So I need to earn some activity points to get out of the red. I keep telling myself that the ugly truth is better lying to myself. It's more productive anyway.

Activity. We really hammered on getting activity in last week. I know I've got to get with it. Luckily, Weight Watchers is doing a Walk-It Challenge, the goal of which is to walk a 5K on or by June 6. That doesn't really seem like a big deal. It's 3.1 miles. Big whoop. But that's no excuse not to do it. So today I started a six-week training plan to work my way up to a 5k walk. It starts with just ten minutes a day and gradually adds minutes. Today was just too beautiful, so I took a walk around the neighborhood, which turns out to be a nice place for walking. Here's to getting out there again tomorrow -- and five days a week for six more weeks. Hopefully longer. But let's just take it one day at a time, shall we?

Water. I have been chugging way too much pop. Soda. Coke. Whatever you call it. Granted, it has all been diet, but even though it's calorie-free, it can't be good for me. When I woke up this morning, I knew what I had to do. I've gone all day and had only water, except for that first sip of Diet Sunkist I took when I knew I had to change my ways. I'm not swearing off everything except water, but I need to make it my go-to thirst-quencher. We'll see how this goes.

I hope I'm not biting off more than I can chew in the way of challenging myself, but all three of these changes seem necessary at this point.

Some exciting developments: I have officially lost over 40 pounds, which means I'm in the 250s. That means I'll soon be under 250. This loss total has affected me emotionally more than any other yet. I haven't cried, though. Something tells me the waterworks will spring when I hit that 50-pound mark. Oh, and I bought a pair of size 22 pants for work this weekend. (On sale, of course. 50% off!) I know that size doesn't sound very exciting, but I honestly don't know when I last wore a pair of pants that size. I will definitely be rocking them this week.

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

In the thick of it.

The last time I wrote was February 21? Oops. Yeah, I knew from the get-go I wasn't going to be good at this blogging thing.

Good thing I've been doing a much better job with the whole Weight Watchers thing, eh?

This is my twelfth week with the program. As of last Thursday, I'd lost 37.4 pounds. The website has finally stopped telling me I'm losing too quickly because, at the last two weigh-ins, I lost a combined total of one pound. Once it was -.4 and another it was -.6. I was okay with both of those numbers because I was certain I would have a gain each time. And I'm not going to lie, I don't expect much progress this week either.

I don't want to be negative. Really. I'm just trying to be realistic. Over the past few weeks (or the whole month, really), I've struggled to stick with the plan on weekends. I have gone a whole day without tracking my points. In a way, I feel like that's somewhat healthy, that I can function without plugging in numbers. The truth, though, is that I don't plug in the numbers because I know it's going to be ugly. As if not recording it means it never happened. Yeah, right.

If I want to be realistic, I have to take the bad with the good. Ignoring the bad won't make it go away. That should be my goal this week. Track what I eat, no matter what it is. Face the facts.

All this means that I'm in the thick of it now. I think the easy, puppy-love part of this is over. I now know what it's like to feel like I've messed up completely. But I also know what it's like to feel like I'm finally getting somewhere.