A Little More on Track

Well, I'm heading in the right direction. I had a good day and got back on track a bit. The next day was good mostly except that we had pub night at our church complete with bar food and drinks, so needless to say that wasn't a great day. And tonight I have a birthday party. But I still think I'm doing better overall. So we'll see at my weigh-in this coming week.

Seriously???

I haven't posted on here in a long time. And that's always a bad sign when it comes to this blog, given the purpose of it.

I admit that I've let a bit of weight sneak back on. I won't say how much. I'm going to give myself a week to get back on track since I usually lose more pounds my first week getting back on track. Then I'll update my weight loss ticker.

I'm pretty bummed with myself. The sad thing is that lately I've been shoving everything in my mouth and just NOT caring. It doesn't make sense. How could I not care after working SO HARD to get off 25 pounds last year. I want my goal weight so badly.

Part of it is that I've had so much stress and change in my life lately and I'm an emotional eater. So I need to look at this as a learning experience. What I NEED to learn if I'm ever going to lose all of my weight and keep it off is how to deal with life without running to chocolate and other dairy products.

Also, I'm considering the idea of giving up dairy again. I gave up dairy for a short while when Boo was a baby because his eczema was terrible and I noticed that dairy aggravated his skin. I cut out all dairy, not just the obvious stuff, but all of the hidden forms of dairy too. It was rough, especially at first, but I learned how to manage life without dairy. I only did this for about 3-4 months. He was able to tolerate dairy better as he got a bit older. Part of the time was during Thanksgiving and Christmas. That was a bit rough. So why would I consider giving up dairy again? I felt GREAT. I had more energy. I didn't experience nearly as many mood swings. My cravings dried up after an initial intense period. I do think that I'm one of those people that has an unhealthy reaction to dairy. Having a little bit causes me to crave it nonstop. And once I start eating it I have a hard time moderating the amount that I consume. I lost weight without trying. No weight watchers, no sparkpeople, nothing. I didn't have to count or track anything. My body was just responding to a diet that consisted of pretty much no processed foods. I was trying healthy new recipes because my old ones no longer worked. I cooked a lot more and loved that part of it.

Here's some things that I would not be able to have if I choose to go the no dairy route. Ice cream, chips w/ sour cream, cheese, milk, butter, most cookies and crackers, many breads, and the list goes on and on. At the time I did it, I definitely felt that it was worth it. It's just, well, hard. Now that I have daycare going full-time it would be especially hard. I'd have to be really on top of planning in order to accomplish this.

For now, I'm just pondering this. But I'm going to try to get back on track with sparkpeople starting today because I just can't let anymore weight creep back on. I'll be devastated if I allow anymore to creep on. So I will start with that while I give serious thought to the no dairy lifestyle.

An Incentive Skirt

Well, things have changed. I'm now on sparkpeople. I still need to cancel my weight watcher's membership so I can stop getting billed for it. I haven't been in forever. Sparkpeople works when I stick to it. I had a day of getting back on track yesterday. It went pretty easily. I guess that's what happens when you have a bad head cold and don't really care to eat anyways. Bleh - feel pretty blah today.

Anyways, I've joined a community choir in town and we're performing selections from different operas in May. I'm going to have to buy an outfit as I don't own the necessary attire for the performance. I've figured that I have 13 weeks until the performance. SO, I thought this would be a great incentive. All of my previous incentive clothes now fit so it's time for a new incentive. I've decided that I will buy my skirt in a size or two smaller than what currently fits. How's that for incentive? I think it will be fun. So I guess my weight loss goal for the 13 weeks is going to be between 15 and 20 pounds. I'm not sure how pounds correlate with sizing. I'm sure there's not a set formula for that as everybody's body is different. So I'll probably just try some things on and see what feels too tight but reasonable to fit into within about 3 months time.

So I'm trucking along. I feel like I've got my motivation is back. It's interesting how it seems to come in waves. But as I've said before I'm just happy that I didn't gain it all back. That in and of itself is a HUGE accomplishment.

Ice Cream is NOT a Breakfast Food

That's been my ongoing mantra this morning as I continue my weight loss journey. Yes, hello, I'm still here. I haven't posted on this blog in awhile, just a little ditty awhile ago to say that I'd been maintaining. And here I am...still maintaining. Yes, I'm happy to not be gaining. That is something. But I'm really wanting to continue with the weight loss.

Hubby bought ice cream last night and it was delicious. Moosetracks...yummo. And it's great as an occasional treat. The icy refreshing feel of ice cream sliding down the back of your throat combined with chocolate sending me into absolute euphoria. Yes...ice cream is good. In it's proper place, that is. BUT I can imagine that I would feel anything but euphoric a few minutes after consuming said ice cream for breakfast. In fact, I would probably feel guilty. Is that any way to start the day or the week for that matter? No. It is not. So I will head into the kitchen and pour myself a bowl (carefully measured of course) of shredded wheat (honestly it's pretty stinking good - I love shredded wheat) with some milk on top and wait for my coffee to brew. Ah - coffee - sweet coffee. Well, that's a different kind of euphoria perhaps for a different post!

I've maintained!

Well, I haven't been to a WW meeting in quite some time. I haven't even weighed myself in forever. Boo threw my scale down the stairs awhile back and I just now got it replaced. So of course first thing after getting it home I weighed myself.

I'm doing great! I'm maintaining my weight loss, which is huge. I may even be down a few pounds, but I'm not sure. I go by my ww weigh in for my official weight, so I need to get to a meeting to see where I'm at.

Now to kick my rear in gear and get back on the weight loss train! AND get back into regular ww meetings. I'm going this Saturday. I'm going this Saturday. I'm going this Saturday. I need to keep repeating that to myself. I think it's possible to lose this week despite Thanksgiving turkey with glorious fatty sides and desserts. I can do this!

A Weight Watcher's Milestone

Well, one of the big milestones in the weight watcher's program is losing 10% of your body weight. This is the first goal that everyone works towards when they join weight watchers. Weight watchers sets this goal for everyone coming in because just losing 10% of a person's body weight can lead to significantly better health.

This week's weight loss was 2.4 lbs. Woo woo - back on the weight loss train.

I felt really great about my success and decided to head to Goodwill for incentive clothing. I did find a pair of jeans that I can squeeze into. I definitely need to lose in order for them to be comfortable and more wearable. So they will be my new incentive jeans. I also got a few long sleeve shirts for fall and I found some cute overalls for Boo. Now I don't have to do laundry for him to have something to wear to the circus tonight!

Anyhoo, hopefully I can stay on the weight loss train. I know that I'll be splurging a bit tonight, but I have my weekly points for that. And as long as I stay within my points tonight and the rest of the week I should see a loss next Saturday!

Checking in Midweek

I'm reposting this. I accidentally posted it on the wrong blog!

Well, so far so good this week. Even though I ate a lot over the weekend, it came out of my extra weekly points that weight watchers allows. So I'm doing okay. I've been able to stay in my points every day and it's showing on the scale. Also, activity wise I think I'm doing okay. With having 5 children in the house 4-5 days a week I pretty much don't sit down all day. I'm constantly on the move. We still do our morning walk. Granted, this is not at all at a brisk pace. I have two walkers now and that really slows me down. But oh well. I try to go for another walk in the evenings with Boo and Wally. That walk's a bit faster since Boo rides in the stroller!

I'd love to get in some yoga during naptime, but right now I'm lucky if I sit down for 20 minutes during naptime (even though the kids sleep for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours). But there's so many things that need to get done in that time, plus there's a little baby that usually wants fed somewhere in there!

Anyways, it feels good to see some progress on the scale after buckling down and putting forth the effort!