Ramping up.....

Today was my official weigh in day so I weighed in. My weight was pretty much the same as it has been any other time that I was "up" for the week. I did take some time today to get some recipes together, get my coupons organized and write out some ideas for meals. I am trying to get as much planning done for meal ideas between now and New Year's as I can because that is my official restart date. I have some cookies to finish up but other than that, I really didn't eat that much junk this holiday.

I also bought a new espresso machine today...I am very excited about it because a latte with espresso will replace my morning chai latte which will save me about 140 calories every morning...that should add up after a while, right? ha, that is not the only thing I am cutting out, don't worry, but it is almost 1,000 calories a week saved!

I do DREAD going to the gym next week. I HATE the first 6 weeks of the year when all the NY's resolution people are in there crowding everything up and taking my spot in my classes. It sucks. I always felt that they should have special classes that only people who have been going to the gym regularly could go to, but I know that isn't really nice and fair and doesn't encourage others to get fit. Ugh, I just hate that everything takes twice as long to do as normal. At least they don't usually last very long!

A Plan

Ok, so I have been a little down about the whole weight loss effort lately. Sort of unmotivated to take the extra step and not really sure how to make my eating a little more strict so I can get those pounds off. Well, I think that I have come up with a plan. My biggest problem seems to be not planning. On the days where I do really well with all of my eating are the days when I have healthy snacks, have either leftovers from a healthy dinner the night before or sandwich ingredients that are high quality and healthy. So, with all this in mind, I have decided to do a little researching (through my own recipes and some on the internet) to get a list of "meals" which are acceptable and within the goals of points per meal that I have set up. I am hoping that if I make a list and make sure that I always have one of those meals on hand, that will make it a little easier to be strict for a little while. That way I still get a variety but I also can keep track of what I am eating. I sort of think of it like my own little "prepackaged" diet. HA! I also need to measure (I have a food scale) to make sure that I really am eating just a serving of whatever I am eating. I think that will also be key for me. The next step will be that I am also going to continue my workouts because I really do think that helps. It seems that the weeks where I do lose are the weeks where I do work out at least 3 times. I have also discovered that they tend to pair a high intensity class with a low intensity class at the gym (spin, then yoga or muscle pump, then step, etc) so I am considering doing 2 classes in a row a couple times a week to help jumpstart it all. It is two hours at the gym but it seems to go by pretty fast and I do sort of enjoy how I feel afterwards. Plus, I see the same people over and over so it is a potential for some new friends. The third item in my trifecta is to DRINK MY WATER. I know this is important to my body but I just fall off track. I am really going to try to get in my 8 cups a day.

So, that is the plan. It will start Jan 1st (though I am still not going nuts now with bad food...I am still eating healthy and trying to be as cautious as I can, but a couple cookies are sneaking in.) Hopefully this will help me to be more effective with Weight Watchers and will get my body a jump start. I clearly have figured out how to maintain, now to lose :-)

Weigh In

Down 1.2.

Thanks

Everyone had encouraging words the other day and I am feeling better. Not exactly sure what is up with the weight loss but I am definitely feeling better than I have in a long time and I can see small changes so something is happening. I think that everyone's idea of being a little more strict might just do the trick. Unfortunately there is too much coming up with the holidays for me to be support strict for many days coming up. I am not letting it all go or anything but I am not going to take the extra step until January...might as well suffer with all the New Year's Resolution people :-)

I did weigh myself a couple mornings this week and here is how it went:
Monday: down 3lbs from Sunday
Tuesday: up 1 lb from Monday
Wednesday: up 2lbs from Tuesday
Thursday: down 3 lbs from Tuesday

So, either my body is retarded, the scale is retarded or both. Who knows...hopefully this Sunday will be one of the down days but there is no way that my real weight fluctuated that much in 5 days. sigh......

Weigh In Day

Well, I think that I might stop blogging about this for a while...it seems to be the same thing up and down, up and down...it is funny because overall it is going down but it just seems to be such a roller coaster ride....like I will go down a pound and a half, then stay the same, then up a pound and then stay the same, then down a pound and a half and the cycle starts all over again.

The part that doesn't really make sense to me is that I am eating way less calories and working out a bit more than I was a few months ago...so, why isn't anything happening? Could I work out more? Sure. Could I eat less of the things I like? Sure. But, the important thing to me was to find things that were both healthy and that I liked and didn't feel like I was giving up too much. I didn't want to do a strict diet where I lost a bunch of weight and then go back to things that I liked and gain it all back. I wanted to find replacements for the things that I like so I could not "go back" to things that I missed. I feel like I have been pretty successful in that. I mean there are still some places I could cut and I guess that is what I will work on coming up but other than that.....I am not sure there is much else I can do other than be patient and hope that eventually it will work.

I got a little sad when I looked back at when I did weight watchers a couple years ago (2yrs) and I was about 15lbs lighter....not when I started it but when I stopped...when I started I was probably only 4 lbs lighter than now. I want to get back to that weight.

Anyway, I am not sure there is much else to talk about in relation to all of this...it is turning out to be a lot harder than it has ever been when I feel like I am eating a lot healthier than I ever had. (I even feel better healthwise) so I might not blog about it anymore. Maybe I will be better when the new year comes and will jump back on the band wagon with everyone trying to lose weight (not that I am going to stop between now and then with the eating healthy and cooking and stuff).

So Far, So Good

Well, day two of being out of town and I feel like things are going pretty well for me so far. I stuck with Subway for the last two days for lunch (and it is fine and all but I am STARVING by the afternoon). I also took two apples for snacks during the day today and ordered a healthy version of Chinese food tonight. I also got on the elliptical tonight for an hour and burned about 500 calories. Hopefully the next two and a half days will go well too.

I can't help but hope that this extra work will help the scale but then I get a feeling that it won't. I never lose when out of town...oh well.....