super-excited!

Well, I’m super-excited to report that at weigh-in this week, I lost THREE POUNDS!

I’m super-excited about this for so many reasons:

- I never have big losses like this
- It puts me into a new points range
- It means I’ve now lost 20lbs!!!
- I’m finally under 240, which for some reason has really been ‘sticking in my craw’ as they say. The last time I started WW, 240 was my starting weight, so it’s stuck in my head as my ‘highest weight’. Starting at 257 this time around was such a punch in the gut, and my first ‘real’ goal was to get back to that 240. Now I’ve done it!

A few weeks ago I made my boyfriend promise to buy me flowers when I hit my 20lb mark so I informed him last night that he better pay up. I’ve also decided that for my reward to myself, I’m going to order a copy of The Amazing Adventures of DietGirl from Amazon. Just before I started WW in November, I found Shauna’s blog and went back and read ALL her archives. I mean, all eight years worth. It took me about three days. I’m sure if she was keeping an eye on her stats, she knew a new stalker had been born.

Anyway! I’m feeling super-excited about this (did I say that already?) Being firmly in the 230s makes me feel so accomplished – like I really can get there. I really WILL get there.

Super-excited!

where it gets hard.

Yesterday I got some pretty devastating personal news, and I've been a wreck ever since. I woke up crying about three times last night. Things are going to be pretty rough for my family for the next few months.

Aside from all the other million things I'm now worried about, I'm also thinking about what this is going to do to my weightloss efforts. I am DEFINITELY a stress eater, and I admit that the thought of binging has already crossed my mind. "I could eat an entire bag of chips," I thought last night. "Under the circumstances, no one would blame me." But then I thought: no one would ever 'blame' me for eating chips. No one else would even really care. I'm the one who'd be disappointed in myself, and that hasn't changed, even with the current family drama going on. I wouldn't be happy with myself if I ate a bag of chips, even if I had an 'excuse' like this one.

Anyway, so I'm trying to hold that thought for now. I stayed within my points yesterday, although I did have three glasses of wine (mostly because I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep otherwise.)

Luckily, this week my motivation has been sky-high. I was all about embracing the hard. So I guess this is it: this is where it really gets hard.

Oh yeah, and I lost another 1lb at weigh-in yesterday. That means I lost 4.8lbs for all of January. That seems kinda low to me, but hopefully it's true that 'slow and steady wins the race'.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Weigh-in, and some thoughts on points.

Well, I had my weigh-in last night, and I'm down another 1.4, for a total of 14.4 lbs. I've been doing this for exactly 10 weeks now, which puts me at an average loss of 1.44 lbs per week, which is pretty spot-on to what they advise (1-2 lbs a week.) So I'm feeling pretty good about my overall progress, even though of course the "impatient child" part of me thinks I should have lost AT LEAST 40 lbs by now.

For those of you who follow Weight Watchers -- how do you manage your points? My daily target is 30 pts, and I usually have one day in the week where I break into some of my flex points and eat between 40-45 points total. Then, I get kind of guilty feeling about that, (even though I know it's allowed because that's what flex points are for!) so then I have a couple days where I eat UNDER my daily points range to make up for it. Usually I'll have 2-3 days at around 27pts each. I know this isn't actually what I'm supposed to do, but in my mind this is what 'thin' people do -- eat heavier one day and then cut back for a few days to make up for it. It also makes me feel better because then I know if I miscounted anything that day, I'll have those 3 spare points to cover it.

But I'm not sure if I should keep doing this, as I'm really trying to follow the program as 'religiously' as possible. I made it my goal for the next two weeks to actually eat ALL my points, EVERY day. I am really curious to see how this will affect my body / mood / weightloss.

So what is your experience with points targets? Do you eat them all and then some? Or do you stay below them sometimes? How does that affect your losses?

happy Friday!

I weighed in last night, and am down another 0.8 lbs. Not a stellar loss, especially since it's been 9 days since my last weigh-in, but I'm okay with it. I've lost 13 lbs in total now, and am more than half-way to my 10%.

The greatest part of our meeting was when our leader asked if anyone had done well over the holidays and wanted to share -- of course my hand shot straight up in the air, being the braggart that I am. Since we hadn't had a meeting in two weeks, I got to announce that over the holidays I lost a total of 6.4lbs. Everyone kinda stared at me in shock -- it took a minute before the usual applause started. It was a great moment. :) Our leader asked how I did it, and I said it was all about the tracking. She made me repeat that about four times, and kept looking pointedly at certain people in the meeting everytime I did. She is funny. :)

So, anyway, a small loss this week, but I'm not feeling even the slightest bit down about it. I'm planning to have another great on-plan week, and I know all these *small* losses are going to add up to something big.

Happy Friday, everyone!

it's a Christmas miracle!

I went to my weigh-in this afternoon and I am just THRILLED to report that I lost 1 lb! That's right, I managed to lose weight over Christmas!

I am so pleased with myself. Going into the holidays, I made myself just one promise: that I would track and journal everything I ate, even if I went over my points.

And that didn't mean writing it all down two or three days later -- I had to write it down as soon as I ate it, just like I always do. Anyway, it worked out better than I hoped -- knowing how many points I was using kept me in check, even when I gave myself permission to go a little crazy and eat whatever.

For instance, on Christmas Day, we ended up going to a breakfast buffet, for brunch. I ate a moderate amount of food -- I didn't 'pig out' like I normally might, but I definitely didn't hesitate to go back for a second (small) plate of hashbrowns covered in gravy.

As soon as I got home I tallied up what I had eaten, and realized I had already maxed out my points for the day, and that whatever else I ate that day (Christmas Dinner, any chocolate, etc.) would be coming out of my flex points. And even though I didn't intend to limit myself that day, something inside me just didn't want to go too crazy, knowing how much I'd already eaten, knowing how much damage I could do. By the end of the day, I'd used the last of my flex points, and five extra, but I feel like that was a very minimal amount of 'damage', all things considered.

Anyway, it was all worth it when I stepped on the scale today to find out I'd had a loss.

*Happy Dance*

what has two thumbs and is rockin' the holiday weigh-ins? THIS GAL.

I am so happy! After last week's gain, I vowed that I'd quickly get rid of those 2.6lbs, and I weighed in today (two days early, even!) to find out I am down 4.6! That takes care of last week's gain, and two extra pounds to boot!

I can't stop using exclamation marks!

!!!