The luckiest girl in the world

I am completely overwhelmed....by the love and support you all have shown me.  Yes, I already knew that I have an awesome bunch of family and friends, but you all far exceeded my expectations from my first post.  To be perfectly honest, hitting the "publish post" button on the blog wasn't nearly as hard as hitting the "post" button on Facebook.  I clicked and and thought, "oh crap, what did I just do?!"  But your fantastic reaction to my new adventure gave me a push that I didn't realize I needed. 

I was already a little worried about the way my week was going, despite finally finding time to get in some exercise.  Frankly, I need to quit weighing myself at home every other day because it freaks me out.  My head knows that weight fluctuates from day to day and even from hour to hour, but I still have a tendency to need to know how I'm doing right that minute.  Then if it isn't where I think it should be, I panic.  What am I doing wrong?  Yes, I struggle with tracking, but I'm pretty good with keeping my daily points in my head and I haven't gone over my daily allowance, so what's happening?  Then, of course, I start analyzing my whole week trying to figure out why I haven't lost anything - or at times put a little on.  Needless to say, I'm making myself crazy.

Well, that happened this week especially.  I was checking my scale and seeing that I wasn't losing anything, so I started beating myself up for eating a burrito (even though I had the points to eat it at the time) because I thought it screwed up my week.  I was starting to get bogged down by it when I started this on Friday, so a part of me had  hoped that I'd get a few messages of support that would help me get through it.  Boy, did you all come through for me.  My link on Facebook at 44 likes, 32 comments, and there were an additional 6 comments on the blog itself...all in a day and a half.  I am blown away.  Your comments made me laugh, made me cry, and inspired me to finish the week without panicking.  They encouraged me to get my butt off of the couch Saturday and exercise despite having a difficult evening on duty the night before.  I literally cannot thank you all enough...and you'll see why soon enough.

As I said, I had a difficult night working.  For those of you who don't really know what I do, here's my job in a very small nutshell.  I work for a major university (just in case this goes anywhere beyond family and friends, I'd rather not include which one...) overseeing some of the student Residence Halls.  I supervise the RAs, I oversee some specialized living environments (people of the same interest/major who all live together in one building), I see students for minor to moderate discipline issues, I do some programming, and maintain the overall safety and well-being of the students in my building(s).  Part of that last piece means I am on a duty rotation for "after-hours" emergency response for a certain area of campus.  I happen to currently be on duty.  Friday evening I got a number of calls to respond to - not that there were any MAJOR emergencies, but almost all of my calls came between 1:30am-4am.  And I was out walking across campus in the super snowy weather at 2 and 3am.  Needless to say, I was a bit tired after all was said and done. 

So, I wasn't in any state to do my DWTS dvd, but I ended up making up my own light workout routine.  I have a yoga ball that I love, so I put together some exercises with it.  Mine has a small amount of sand in it to help keep it from slipping out from underneath you, but that also makes it a great easy weight.  I use it to do some upside down sit-ups.  You start by laying on the ball on your stomach with the ball around your hip area and your hands on the floor.  Then you use the ball to help roll yourself so that your knees are up on the top of the ball.  Well, ultimately the goal would be to get as far as your toes on top, but I'm not quite that flexible yet. LOL.  After doing about 25 of those, then I moved to laying on the floor and holding the ball in between my feet.  I'd then use lift the ball and set it back down, without actually touching the floor, then do it again for 10 reps.  After I did 10, then I would stretch out my legs and do it again.  I did this about four times.  Finally, to work my upper body, I'd sit on the floor and lift the ball up and over my head, then behind my head, then back over my head to the floor.  Again, 10 times then stretch and repeat.  It was actually a pretty good workout!  Sunday I got up and my inner legs were clearly sore from the leg lifts.  So, I did it again on Sunday!  It's low intensity and doesn't take very long to do, so it doesn't really earn you many activity points, but it's movement and really pretty enjoyable.  P.S. if you have a yoga ball, even just spending time sitting on one is a great ab/back workout.  I also spent a portion of Sunday sitting on the ball while I crocheted...relaxing and a small workout at the same time!  I may even buy one to use in my office instead of my chair!

Monday the nerves started again because I knew it was weigh-in day.  I had a light breakfast of two hard-boiled eggs and a cup of light yogurt.  It was actually quite filling, but frankly they didn't mix well together!  Note to self - no more eggs and yogurt at the same time!  It wasn't the taste, because I ate the yogurt then waited about 15 minutes before eating the eggs, but they do not sit well in your stomach.  Yuck!  I had a small chicken salad with raspberry vinaigrette for lunch, and drank a TON of water.  After work, I went to my meeting and was astonished at how well I had done.  I LOST ANOTHER FOUR POUNDS!!  On top of that, we were talking about changes that we made this week.  I told the group about my blog and they were all so excited and proud of me.  It really made me feel good!  I've been to WW groups before where I felt like an outcast because the people were not overly friendly, but this group has really been welcoming.  I even had someone hang out and chat with me after the meeting about my blog! 

Between the outpouring of love and support, and my success at weigh-in today, I am feeling pretty on top of the world right now.  And it feels good.

Initial weight: 257.2
Week 2: -4.0lbs
Total weight loss: -6.6lbs
Current weight: 250.6