Carb Free day 4 - scale woes and progress pic

Today I was worried about being able to stay on program with a pot luck lunch at work. Well I am very happy to say that I stayed carb free.... Mind you I had a small piece of KFC chicken, just made sure to remove all traces of the skin and coating, had a black bean and corn salad, which i separated out the corn and pushed them to the side with the chicken skin... There were lots of great looking things including lots of desserts, but I mananged to keep my eye on the prize.

I have a pair of dress pants I bought about 6 years ago when I reached 228lbs (on a previous weight loss attempt) I never actually fit into before I gained back all of my weight. Today I wore them to work and they fit perfectly. i know I am nowhere near 228 yet, but I must have lost a bit for them to fit..... they are a size 16 .... Now I have written before about ditching my scale into the trunck of my car so I couldn't obsess over the scale right.... well tonight I grabbed it from the truck to take a peek at how far I have come.... well I dropped the scale on the parking lot (concrete) floor plus it has been pretty cold out which I assume would play havoc with my scale. Well I hope so because it is weighing me 10lbs heavier than I was at my last weigh in two weeks ago... Arrrrrrgh, the damn scale is going back into the truck tomorrow..... after I check my weight one more time in the morning.

I have notices a change in my arms and shoulders recently, and I find myself staring at them when I am drying my hair or looking in the mirror... Tonight I took a picture of what it is that I am seeing and I am just loving the definition I am getting in my arms and shoulders. Here is a picture (please don't mind the bags under my eyes or the ratty tank top I am wearing lol...

Day 4

Without my scale.... I was tempted to pull it out of my trunk this morning and weigh in on the concrete floor in the parking garage, then talked myself out of it- lol It is hard - and I mean really hard, to not weigh in, but, I think I am learning from this experience. Will write more later.... off to work.

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.

Midweek Peek - Progress report

Ummmmm yeah, so it is only Tuesday morning, and since my last post I have stepped on the scale about a gazillion times-lol

Right, I will need to work on this a bit.....

Ate most of my weekly points on Sunday and realized the entire day I was eating out of boredom. I'm still on track though and feeling good..... well except for my arms and shoulders..... have you ever seen Olympic weightlifting where they pull the bar up to shoulder level, and then press the bar up over their head? Google clean and jerk and you will see what I mean. Yup, well that's what I was doing yesterday. I still don't totally have the hang of it, but it's getting better.

Off to get ready for work.

Midweek Peek

One of my biggest downfall's when it comes to weight loss is my need to weigh myself, at the very least, every morning. I literally wake up and still groggy, stumble into the kitchen (the only flat surface in my condo) and step on the scale. This sets the tone for my day, but what I have realized is that no matter what the scale says, looking at the number is never motivation to stay on track for the day. However the number, whether it is good or bad, is always an excuse to go off plan for the day. If I'm down a few, I feel like I have a "bit of room" to indulge that day and if I'm up then say to myself " well I'm not losing anything anyway, I may as well just eat".

Somewhere between sleep last night and early this morning the term Midweek Peek came into my head. I know for sure I cannot go a full week without weighing myself, not yet anyway, but I think if I give myself a little mid week peek at the scale I may just be able to get through without going absolutely crazy. That is the plan for this week, I am curious to see what changes occur, if any.

On a bit of a funny note, when I was thinking about the scale and how it has been detrimental to my weight loss efforts I briefly thought that since it is in my kitchen anyway, perhaps I should position it right in front of the fridge so that everytime I go to get food, I have to step on the scale and see my weight and be faced with the reality of what too much food has done to me. On a bigger scale (pun intended) - perhaps they should make the floor in grocery stores weight scales so that when you stop in front of the ice cream or chips or a variety of other stuff, a huge biggest loser type board lights up, flashing our weight for the world to see thus shaming us into not buying the crap- hmmmmm I may be on to something here :)