Getting Back on Track

Some weeks I consider blogging more than once, but I don't want to overload people with my random thoughts.  This has been one of those weeks.  Several times this week something has happened that I thought, "oooh that would be a good blog topic this week"...so, instead of writing multiple times this week, I decided to kind of combine several of them because they all have to do with getting back on track.

The last few weeks I've done okay, but not what I would call "well."  Don't get me wrong, I am pleased with the progress that I've made, but for the last few weeks every time that I went to weigh in I had that nervous "I could have done better, I hope I didn't gain weight" feeling.  I started reverting back to the weighing myself throughout the week habit and freaking myself out again.  After last weeks meeting, I took a hard look at what was different.  In being really honest with myself, I admitted that while having a couple of busy weeks, I wasn't paying as much attention as I could have.  I wasn't working out as much as I should have, and I definitely wasn't tracking my food as much as I should.  For the most part I was being aware of what I was putting in my mouth and mentally keeping track, but I wasn't writing it down and I wasn't making sure I got all my fruits/veggies/dairy in.  I admitted that I had gotten a little lazy and I needed to get myself back on track...no pun intended.

This week was pretty busy too, but I was determined to get in workouts and track all my food.  For the last few weeks I'd mostly been doing workouts on my yoga ball with the occasional evening of Just Dance 2 (a friend loaned it to me and I thought it would be a nice change of pace).  This week, I got back to dancing every day and went back to my JD3.  Then another realization hit...slacking off on working out takes its toll on you quickly!  I wasn't getting as much of a workout with JD2 as I had been with #3 - it is a nice pace changer every once in a while, but I get much more out of #3.  Some of the songs that I had been getting 5 stars on (based on the points you score, you get ranked from 0-5 stars), I was only getting 3 or 4 stars on.  That was quite the kick in the pants.  Even before my slip, I would dance for about an hour, but had a small break in between each song while I looked for the next one to do.  This time, I decided to start using the "non-stop shuffle" button.  It automatically goes from song to song with no break in between so I'm getting more out of my hour.

I also found that it's true that sometimes good things come to those who wait.  Thursday night, one of the student groups I advise had a big event that I needed to attend.  I was at work a little late, so when I went home I decided to work out instead of eating dinner right away, despite being really tired from a late night duty call the evening before.  I thought I had time to do both, but it turned out that I didn't.  Luckily, the event was being held in one of the dining halls and I knew that I would have just a few minutes to grab some food before they closed.  The only part of the dining hall that was left open was the grill so I had resigned myself that the only things left would probably be cheeseburgers, cheese steaks, or chicken tenders.  I had points left, I hadn't used any of my "extra" weekly points, and I had just earned some new ones by choosing the workout, so I wasn't too worried about having to eat something not so healthy.  However, I was pleasantly surprised that when I got there they still had the evening special left...filet mignon, broccoli, and a baked potato.  Heck yes!!  I mean, that would be awesome any day, but to have that option instead of the cheeseburger...I was in heaven...and it tasted like it, too!

Tracking had become one of my worst enemies...I haven't tracked well since the first time I did Weight Watchers when I was in college.  I didn't really know how things worked back then and I was an AVID tracker because I thought that at some point they were going to ask to see it.  And for some reason, I believed that for months.  Once I realized that that would never happen, it just went downhill from there.  This week, however, I have been a tracking angel!  For, probably the first time since I began this journey, I have honestly tracked every single day this week.  (Guess that's $7 more for my vacation fund!)

Here's to hoping that it pays off!

Initial weight: 257.2
Week 12: -4.0...yes, you read that right...I lost FOUR POUNDS this week!!
Total weight loss: -24.8 lbs....SOOO close to 25!!
Current weight: 232.4
If that isn't motivation to keep working out and keep tracking every day, I don't know what is!!