Weight Watchers Weigh in #6

After Meeting Update-
Start weight - 250 lbs
Current weight - 241.8
Weekly loss- 1
Loss to date- 8.2

This last week has been pretty good food wise although I only tracked about 20% of the time. The fact that I have removed my scale from my place made me a little bit nervous about weighing in this morning. I was down 1 lb and I feel a bit like I have dodged a bullet so I am really going to get back on the tracking bandwagon this week so that I don't have to be worried before next week's weigh in. As long as I track and stay within my points, I will have no fear of the scale. The plan is good, executing the plan is a bit more difficult.

In other BIG news, my trainer has discovered some flaws in the way that I walk, having flat feet is wreaking havoc on my posture, my enitre body is out of sync and this is what continues to cause the pain in my lower back. Get this, he said he was trying to figure out why I have pain in my lower back when my body is now so strong.... MY BODY and SO STRONG being used in the same sentance just blows my mind......

Finally I have to go out to a law firm we work closely with in my job and I realized I have nothing to wear. I really dress quite casually at my job and have just made due with my old clothes. I am currently wearing size 22 dress pants and tops that are just way too big, and I really feel like a slob and a horrible representation of our department if I show up like this next week. I asked my fashionista friend to take me out shopping yesterday and I picked up a beautiful dark grey sweater jacket in an extra large and I tried it on with a pair of dress pants I had previously bought which are a size 16. I was in the change room and I almost broke down in tears looking at myself in the mirror. I liked the way I looked and I was proud of my curvy figure. To actually like the person who was staring (and smiling) back at me was probably the best feeling I have had in a while.

Onward and Downward.

Scale Update

The correct way to weigh yourself:


I can't believe I was doing it wrong all these years.

Now I have attempted to lose weight many, times, and I have changed things up many times however the one thing that I have never done for any length of time is weigh in ONLY 1 time per week. As previously posted I tucked my scale away into the trunk of my car, and while I am struggling with not weighing in 2 or 3 times a day, I found that I am being extra careful in following the program. Since I don't have the scale to tell me that I have a few pounds to play with, or telling me that I haven't lost anything, I can only rely on my abilty to follow plan..... and follow the plan is what I have done.

There was a woman at weight watchers on Saturday who has been at goal for 6 years and she said her secret is that she always writes in her food journal.... still, 6 years later she has not missed a day. She said on a previous attempt at losing, she would write in her journal Monday to Friday and then not write on the weekends. She said that she always lost a lot slower back then and was not nearly as sucessful. She was describing me - the 5 day a week weight watcher.

Over the next two weeks I am going to focus on being a full time weight watcher and once a week weigher inner (lol). I figure it can't hurt and anything that makes me more sucessful is definitely worth a try.

Overcoming Failure: Its what you do next that matters

Weigh in number 4 was not kind to me. I was up 3.4 lbs. Now I know I did not eat an extra 10,000 calories over the last week so there are non food contributing factors..... my monthly "gift" being one of them. Now I started jumping on the scale yesterday morning and have stood on it about a million times since then. I know that these gains are going to happen and they will even themselves out, hopefully by next week. I also know that historically, these gains are what deflates my motivation, and basically causes me to jump off the wagon and stuff my face, even though this weeks gain is just a fluctuation due to something out of my control, by going completely off track that weight gain becomes a reality at next weeks weigh in.

In an effort to make this weight loss experience sucessful, I thought about what I could do to make this program work for me and more specifically change my behaviour when I have small gains, which I know IS going to happen again.

Number 1, is rather than give in, I gave myself a PEP talk all the way home from my meeting, reminding myself of all the wonderful things I have accomplished so far and all reason why I need to stay on track. This is merely a tiny blip on the radar and it really doesn't matter in the whole scheme of things.... what does matter though is how I rebound from this - what I do next.

Number 2, and I have spoken about this recently, is my scale. I am basing my sucess on the what the scale says and manipulating my plan based on the number on the scale. This morning I packed my scale up and threw it in the trunk of my car. I am going to focus my effort on my weight loss plan and exercise plan and refuse to let that darn scale mess with my mind! As much as I hate to admit it, getting rid of my scale is one of the hardest things I have done on this journey, but it is imperative that I learn to trust myself and base my sucess on how well I follow the program and NOT on what the scale says. By focusing on working the program, the scale will have no option but to comply!

I have just put on a crock pot with Osso Buco style stew (sp) as well as a smaller crock pot filled with Steel cut oats. I have been relying on processed food far too much in the last few weeks so I want to get back to basics, planning and cooking my meals for the week.

Onward and downward.

Weight watchers- weigh in #3

So today was weigh in day. Last night I grabbed a bag of pretzels from the store (hot buffalo wing flavor-yum) of course I ate the entire bag and then counted that they cost me 22 points. The good news is that I I had the flex points to cover them, but the bad news is they were full of sodium so this morning I was feeling quite bloated. I still managed to lose 0.4 lbs which I was quite happy with. This week I am going to see if I can work my flex points in earlier in the week and see how that goes.

So yesterday at the gym I was doing weights. First was lots of dead lifts - where you bend over at the waist and pull the barbell up as you straighten up. I did some other weight exercise as well and then we moved on to an exercise which is so hard for me..... Basically I was holding a 25lb dumbbell in each hand and had to swing it up in front of me to shoulder height, then push them upwards beside my ears until my arms were straight over my head. My trainer challenged me, he picked up two 45lb dumbbells and I challenged him to do this with me. If I failed to do it I would have to do a half mile on the treadmill in under 7 mins..... So I managed to do 20 reps, even after I said it was impossible for me to do so. Challenges are good!

Tonight I am out with some friends. We are heading out to see a band play at a little pub. Every hear of the group called the Spoons from the 80's? There are a couple of band members in this band called the lost boys. Tomorrow I am heading out to a horseshoe tournement and on Monday I am going mountain biking.... It is going to be a busy weekend but I am excited about it.

weight watchers - weigh in number 1

Dieting is wishful shrinking. ~Author Unknown

Just getting ready to head out to my meeting. I can feel the old me creeping into my head -you know the one who is saying 'Your scale shows you lost 8 lbs - when you step on that scale at weight watchers it better be 8 lbs that you lost... anything less than that and you are a FAILURE" !!!!! or the one that always sets me up to fail is "ok, so if you lose 3 lbs a week.... lets see that is 12lbs per month, which means I should be down 60lbs by the end of the year...... hmmmm but I think I can lose 3.5lbs per week so that would make it 75lbs by year end".

So far I have managed to push these thoughts from my head. I am expecting a loss today, no matter what that loss is, I will be thrilled. Going forward, I am going to focus only on eating what I am supposed to eat and exercise as much as I am able to fit into my schedule and let my body release this fat at its own pace. I refuse to play those old games this time - if there is one thing I have learned in the 30 years I have been dieting - is that I can plan out a lot of things related to weight loss, but I cannot plan what the scale is going to say.

After Meeting Update-
Start weight - 250 lbs
Current weight - 244.6
Weekly loss- 5.4
Loss to date- 5.4

Mountain Biking

So I headed out with a friend today. We went back to the same park we went to last month to give mountain biking a second go. You may recall last time I came home with cuts and bruises and a damages shoulder from falling from the bike a couple of times. Today was a different story. I felt like I had the hang of it out there. Challenging myself to push through the rocky sections and increaseing my speed overall. We rode for an hour and then decided we were feeling strong still so we hit another nearby park and rode for another hour and a half. By the end I truly was spent, but what a wonderful day. It felt so good to be out there pushing myself and working hard, burning calories and feeling amazingly strong doing it.

I weighed in yesterday at weight watchers and my official start weight was 250lbs, which is up about ten pounds but I am keeping positive as I know that I had a big meal and a few drinks (quite a few drinks) and was feeling very bloated so I am expecting a large loss on me weigh in next Saturday.

Setting myself up for sucess

"All that I need, is within me"


ok it's done. I have officially re-joined weight watchers. They have a special at the moment where you get a monthly pass at (at a rate that is lower than the week to week rate) and includes meetings and etools. Add to this my body bugg (biggest loser) and of course the biggest part to my getting fit puzzle, which is my fabulous personal trainer, and I really do have all of the tools required to see better results.

I asked my trainer how to learn how to focus myself to the task at hand, whether it be running, or boxing or lifting, I was finding that at the times that I was able to truly focus all of my energy on the task at hand, I was sucessful, but when I allowed my old fears and negetive thoughts to flood my mind, I failed. My trainer told me that he uses the phrase "All that I need is within me" and I have started to repeat this to myself over and over when I am at the gym. It is working, I am becoming mentally stronger and it is making a world of difference in my training.

I have decided to apply this to my weight loss efforts as well. Deep down inside I think I am deathly afraid of failure. I have failed at weight loss so many times before. I have come to the obvious conclusion that I cannot just dole out money and expect the fat to just melt away from my body, I have to actually do the work...I am beginning this weight loss journey again, this time with the confidence, that all that I need is within me. This is it..... I will do this.... I will suceed!

I think I am ready

To get my eating under control. I am re-joining weight watchers. I have about 5 months left of personal training and I need to get some of this weight off. I know I have been working hard in my training sessions and have been changing my body shape, but I need to get on track with my eating. Back to meetings as of Saturday. Now the big thing for me is I am going alone. I've never done that before, but I am going and I am going to start losing again.

On a good note, today I ran (ok more like a slow jog) on 4.5mph for 7 minutes straight. That is pretty much unheard of for me, so I am going back tomorrow to see if I can beat that time..... the best part was I had absolutely no pain in my knees for the first time in about 1.5 years.

Still enjoying my vacation, am super relaxed and looking forward to enjoying another few days of freedom before heading back to the stress pit that I call work!