Sharing your weigh-in...

I have lost 4 pounds in two weeks. Not too shabby. There was a time when a loss of slightly over a half of a pound would have made me angry. Now I cherish it. Anytime the scale is not going up, I am a happy camper.

Do you share your weight loss with people? I have a love/hate relationship with sharing the weekly weigh-in (with real life people). I want to share when I've done well because I feel so excited. Inevitably there is someone you share a small loss with who says something that deflates your balloon like:

"You are headed in the right direction, don't give up."
"At least you didn't gain."
"You'll do better next week."

No, I lost this week - say, "Well done - you are kicking butt!" Leave it at that, please. That's sufficient.

I feel so great right now with weight loss. I am in such a healthy place mentally. Food is not my focus and I am just making decisions about what to eat when my body gets hungry rather than obsessing all day long about what I will/won't eat. It feels great.

I hope you all are having a great week, too!

I Did Not Fall in a Hole

I am back. I have been going through a little down cycle personally so my writing has been put on hold while I regroup. I am not off the WW bandwagon. I have lost almost all of the weight I gained over Christmas. Now I am working on moving forward with even more weight loss.

Honestly, I have had to focus most of my mental effort on getting through the day. Food has been an afterthought. When I have thought about it, I have made wise choices, but I haven't been journaling or making it the focus of my life. I was surprised to have such a big loss this week (-3.2 pounds)..although I have always sensed that losing my focus on food would equate losing weight...and it did this week.

I keep reading your blogs because I love new ideas for eating healthy and am so encouraged by your progress. I am still here. Still moving forward. Still pursuing good health and wholeness.

My favorite comment of the week is this, "Spinach smoothies are the new orange juice." LOL!

Spinach smoothie...

I have found a lot of new food options by browsing your blogs. One is that you can put spinach in a smoothie. At first, I cringed. However, I had a big bag of spinach in my refrigerator so I thought, "Why not?!" Who knew you could put a cup of spinach in a smoothie and NOT taste it? I love the taste of spinach but didn't think I would enjoy that flavor in my smoothie. Thankfully, it isn't there. The other flavors overpower it. The crazier part is that I start dropping weight when I make additions like this.

Today's smoothie was a Blueberry smoothie and had:

Skim milk
Chocolate protein powder
1 tsp of peanut butter
1 cup of blueberries
1 cup of spniach
Ice

DELICIOUS and I scored one fruit and one veggie before 9:00 a.m. That's my kind of drink! Lunch is salmon with quinoa/brown rice, cherry tomatoes, and a clementine. Finally, fruits and veggies show back up on the scene...it only took 7 days to make the swap this time. I am tired of being achey, bloated, and refluxish. Here's to a really good day!

One Baby Step at a Time

My body has been rebelling against my move back to healthy eating. It has been jittery, achey and downright angry. I have baby stepped it back in - hoping to calm my nerves and reinstitute some sanity to my eating. I wasn't super out of control, but was eating enough sugar to get my body addicted to it, again.

For three nights in a row I wanted ice cream. The one night I told you about, I allowed myself two scoops of the good stuff. Two nights ago, I went to the store and bought skinny cows and WW ice cream cups. I had one ice cream cup and one skinny cow. Not great but still better than 700 calories of Bruster's goodness. Last night, I had one ice cream cup. The rest of this week I will have a skinny cow each night and when they are gone, we are done.

I also managed to work-out and stop eating at 7:30 p.m. No TV snacks or goodie hunts. I was done and I mentally shut it off. I feel so good when my healthy choices start to feel good and natural, again.

This morning I had steel cut oatmeal and a cup of coffee. I have a sandwich, a yellow pepper, and single serving of pretzels for lunch. Somewhere in there I plan to get in a grapefruit and maybe some almonds. Haven't figured out dinner yet but I know today will be the first day that I am squarely back within my points range. One day at a time. Why do I leave this place? I want THIS to be my lifestyle..not the sugar-monster lifestyle.

Here we go, one day at a time. Baby steps. Baby steps. This is the year, people!

A Bad Habit

I have a bad Weight Watcher's habit. I go, weigh-in, and then I treat weigh-in day like it is the last day before a diet starts. I eat crazy stuff that I never want or eat because 'I may never have a chance to have it, again.' Case in point. Yesterday I made alfredo sauce and put it over whole wheat pasta. I have had alfredo sauce a sum total of four times in my life. Just not a fan. I wanted something creamy and I thought that I would give it a try. I only ate a small portion because my stomach said, "No, thank you." However, earlier in the day I made cookies for a friend and ate two plus about two cookies of dough. Then, after the alfredo, I was craving ice cream so I went to the shop on the corner and got two scoops.

What in the world?! I called a friend and I semi-confessed. She said, "You are obviously craving something else and these creamy foods are filling that void." It's so true. I have been so lonely this holiday season. I have not been alone but I have a desire to be married and have children...and it just isn't happening. I was fine most of the holiday but something about the New Year brings it on in full effect. So, I have a bad habit and when it was coupled with unchecked emotions, I ate like a crazy woman.

Is there an upside? Yes. First, I recognize this as a bad habit and I am going to nip it in the bud. I'm exploring the issue and will learn from it. I think part of the issue has to do with the crazy deprivation the two days before weigh-in to get the best result on the scale. If I even out my eating and sprinkle treats throughout the week, I won't feel so crazy on weigh-in day and have a mini-binge. The second upside is this. My crazy days aren't half as bad as they used to be. I would have bought a gallon of ice cream and had several bowls. I would have recruited a friend to go to a restaurant where I would have consumed three times as many calories as what was in the alfredo. I would have eaten six cookies - feeling sick but still shoveling them in. My body is slowly adjusting to a healthier lifestyle. If I can even out my eating and really attack this as a lifestyle, I think I can go to the next level.

This morning I woke-up and had smoked salmon (very low in calories but high in good stuff), a laughing cow, 1 pt. english muffin, and coffee. I am back to posting pictures and will post a day at a time at the end of the day. Just what you wanted, right?

Do you have any bad habits you are clinging to that would serve you well to explore?

Four weeks on my own....

...and I gained four pounds. Not too bad..I'm still down 2 from when I started. Here we go, again!

On My Way....

On my way to the first meeting in 3 or so weeks. Duh, duh, duh. I have no scale so I have no idea where I will be. I could be back at Square 1.....or worse...oh, please not worse. You know what I am most concerned about - the reaction of the women in the center. I realize this is a completely self-centered thought. Why would these women CARE that I have been gone three weeks during Christmas and gained weight? However, there's a spirit of "all those slackers who disappear until the new year will be back" at the meetings during the holidays so I have that branded on my brain. I've been one of the prideful thinking, "They are so self-deceived. They should have stuck it out." This year, I just didn't want to think about points, food, etc. I don't think I went crazy but I wanted to enjoy my holiday and not be mentally preoccupied with the program. I'm ok with it. Still, the time has come. The end is here. We need to focus on implementing a little more structure and discipline.

The challenge with my brother-in-law also starts today. Mama could use some extra $$$ - she has some redecorating she'd like to do. I decided I needed a creative outlet for the New Year so I decided to redecorate my living room/dining room/kitchen. They need it anyway (carpet that is bubbling, too small table for my entertaining needs, cracked tile floor and hunter green counter tops.) It will give me something to focus on other than food/eating/exercising.

Ok, I have to blow dry my hair because I don't want the weight of the extra water in my hair (LOL). Don't pretend you haven't thought it as you survey your underwear, bra, pants, and top weight.

Love you crazy WWs.

New Year, New You...not really...

Who wrote the tagline, "New Year, New You?" I am a writer and have been in marketing/sales for years so I can see the meeting in my mind and they were so proud when this one came up. Unfortunately, it has saddled us with very unrealistic expectations. I am not a new person today. I am the same person and I rejoice in that thought.

Sure, I have areas where I need to grow, learn, and improve. There are parts of my life that remain a work in progress. There are even things that will be a work in progress as long as I am on this side of the grave. We are works in progress...constantly growing and changing. This year, I want to focus on the positive in my life. I am so blessed. I have grown so much in the last 10 years and like who I see when I look in the mirror. I would love to be several pounds lighter but that will not be the focus of 2010. The focus will be on gratitude, joy, and relationships.

Yes, I will continue with healthy eating and working out. I will tomorrow and get on the scale at Weight Watchers and will continue to move forward with losing weight. The difference is that I will not allow it to dominate my life. I will let it enhance my life and when it begins to dominate my thoughts and cause me to hate myself, I will stop, re-read this post, and move on.

You are beautiful. You, dear reader. Today. Not when you lose 20 pounds. Not when to get (fill in the blank) fixed. Not when you grow your hair out or get six pack abs. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL TODAY. You are exactly where you should be today. Look around, enjoy the good and start making steps towards more good. Rejoice. You get another year of goodness.

God loves you, dear reader, and so do I. Happy New Year!