To Goal I Go…

So there I am next in line to weigh in.  I take off my shoes, my socks, my jacket, my sweatshirt, my bracelet, my necklace, my ring, my watch, my glasses, my hairtie (okay maybe that’s an exaggeration), but needless to say I am finally READY to step on the scale.  I give the lady my card and sign  in my monthly pass number. The the woman says, “Whenever you’re ready.” I quickly think, “I’ll never be ready.”  The ultimate anxiety hits as I take one step onto the scale hoping and praying that the kind woman behind the desk will scream, “4.4 pounds DOWN!” Instead, and to my dismay, she quietly says, “Okay, up .4.”  “GREEEEEEAAAATTTT,” I thought, “UP?!?!?! UP?!?!?!?! How wonderful! Only 11 days until my goal date and now .4 FURTHER away. GRRRRRRRR.”   “Not to mention the fact that I was desperately trying to go to the bathroom and before my weigh in and it was NOT happening.  How depressing.” Now in actual response to the news I sneer across the table  and say in a somewhat threatening voice, “Thanks.  I WILL be back tomorrow.” (I really AM nicer than that but my discouragement got the best of me for an instant!)

 Oh well, the good news is that I am looking (or trying to anyway) at the BIG picture and remembering that I will be at my goal soon even if not by my birthday.  For now I will just try to get as close to my goal as possible by then. I also noticed that I hardly blogged last week, which I think could have messed me up.  I don’t know if this is true for anyone else but, NEWSFLASH keeping track “in my head” is NOT the same as writing it down!

 Okay well I am on to a fresh start and a new day.  Maybe if I ever go to the bathroom I will weigh in tomorrow morning and see what happens. Happy losing and happy Monday!

So tonight at 9pm I went home and changed to go the gym just to arrive there to find out that they were CLOSED. CERRADO. CLOSED.  I was SOOO disappointed!  That is why I resorted to my own at-home jumping jack cardio workout (with the help of Danielle!).  Sometimes you have to just make due with what you have!

Well I told myself I was going to use this Christmas break to get to the gym on a regular basis and so far I am very content with my efforts.  I continued my workout commitment today (although I didn’t work out as hard as usual) when I did the elliptical machine for 30 minutes. I think I am going to try and run tomorrow to keep those harder workouts going.  Anyway…on to food and GOALS!  So tomorrow is December 6th and I have until December 21st to lose these last 4.4 pounds.  In order to set myself up for success in reaching my goal, I was looking back at my blog to see what my diet consitited of the three weeks when I lost 2.8, then 1.6, then 1.4 pounds.  As it turns out, the week I lost 2.8 pounds I ate the worst I’ve ever eaten on Core.  Sometimes I think that I regress into my old habits of not eating enough which really slows down (or completely stops) the weight loss process for me. I am going to keep studying that five week period and hope that I can tackle these last few pounds!  At WW, I have two or three more weeks of “maintenance” left (even though I’m still losing) until I reach Lifetime and don’t have to pay anymore!  I’m looking forward to that day!  Anyway, here is the food I ate today:

 Happy happy Saturday.  I love Christmas break!  Here is what I ate today:

Ohhh…plus I weighed in at the gym tonight after working out (I’m going to the Tuesday morning meeting next week) and the scale said 134.6! Yay!  That’s lower than my WW weigh-in 2 weeks ago!  I’m looking forward to next week’s meeting!

Let’s not talk about yesterday.  Let’s just not.  :)  I am starting fresh today and excited to get going and reaching my goal by my birthday (sound familiar?)..no but I really am starting right this time.  Here is what I’ve eaten so far today and I will update more later tonight…

So here is the most recent update.  I was feeling very lazy and drug myself to the gym. Due to the laziness I was headed straight for an elliptical machine, but the ONLY machine available at the gym (besides the stairstepper which I despise!) was a treadmill.  I used to run A LOT, but it is has been a real mental battle for me in the past year. Tonight I sucked it up and told myself I was not getting off the treadmill until I’d ran 3 miles no matter how fast or slow I did it.  AND….I did it!  I finished in 26 minutes and sprinted the last tenth of a mile.  It seems like a slow time but I’m just glad I did it! It’s so mental…our bodies really can go a heck of a lot further than we give them credit for! (It’s our brains that want to give up!!!)  After my run, I weighed in at 135.8 on the gym scale, which is up .4 since my weigh in last week. I was impressed after all of the horrible eating I’ve been doing the past few days.  I’m still trying to decide if I should skip the weigh in and just listen to the meeting tomorrow or if I should swallow my pride (and fear!) and step on the scale?!?!?!?!?  We’ll see tomorrow…goodnight everyone!

Food	Core/Pts
banana	Core
1/2 yogurt	Core
Chicken Noodle Soup	Core
2 really gross South Beach diet cookies	2 flex points (don’t ask me why I finished them)
manderin oranges	Core
applesauce (no sugar added)	Core
Chicken and veggiesPopcorn	CoreCore
Totals	Core + 2 Activity Points
Fruits & Veggies	5/5
Healthy Oils
Protein	2/2
Dairy	2/2
Water	8/8
Daily Activity Log - Ran 3 Miles!!! Plus push-ups and sit-ups
35/35 Flex Points Left

After a large disappearance (or maybe avoidance would be a more appropriate word!) and enough nagging from my lovely friend Danielle, I am finally BACK and ready to get going toward my 130lb. goal!!!  My Thanksgiving was wonderful.  My family and I went up to Seattle to visit more family and it was so nice to see everyone and catch up!  That being said, I was a little scared to face my blog, and am even more scared to face the WW scale on TUESDAY!  I really didn’t eat that bad on the actual day of Thanksgiving but I was very lazy about staying on Core over the rest of this weekend.  I don’t really think that I overate too much, but I guess you could say I was on the “flex plan” over the weekend and I did NOT keep track, so you can imagine how successful I probably was in reality!

Tomorrow is my mom’s birthday so I’m going to celebrate that and just so you can all hold me accountable…I will NOT be eating cake (or anything else non-Core for that matter!)! :) I worked out today and will be going to the gym tomorrow (and I will weigh!).  I am contemplating skipping my weigh-in this week in order to not be discouraged by the scale and REALLY look forward to a loss by the following week.  I guess we’ll see what the scale says tomorrow at the gym.  I will also be posting my food starting tomorrow so we can all look forward to that! :)  Okay well I hope everyone else has returned from the big blog abandonment…or maybe you all were more loyal than me!  Have a great Sunday!

Well…here is the rather disappointing update.  I weighed in this morning at 135.4…up .6 from last week :(  I know.  Sad huh?  I am not trying to make excuses but I did just start my period and I know that that can make a big difference.  I’m really hoping that is the reason.  As Thanksgiving is getting closer and closer I’m preparing myself to eat well and then go home without ANY leftovers!  Here is what I ate today:

We tied 3-3 in the last game of this season.  Thankfully (because it is such great exercise) our team will be starting up again in the beginning of December for “winter” season!  I’m excited.  Our games are always on weekends and it’s a great way to get an awesome and really fun workout in.  Anyway…I need to post my food and go to bed.  I’m exhausted and have to be up early tomorrow to teach.  Just an FYI…I am going to weigh-in on Tuesday morning instead of tomorrow night.  I’m terrified…I guess it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I’m not down any…but it might be if I’m up :(  Good luck to everyone over this crazy Thanksgiving week (my mom was already prepping me all weekend about all the wonderful things she’s making…Grrrrrrrrreeeeeeaaaaaat. )  Here’s what I ate today:

Food	Core/Pts
Cereal	Core
banana	Core
Beef/Veggie Stew	Core
Yogurt	Core
Frozen meal	Core
Curves bar	I guess that’s one of my activity points
Totals	Core + 1 activity point
Fruits & Veggies	4/5
Healthy Oils
Protein	1/2
Dairy	2/2
Water	10/8
Daily Activity Log - SOCCER GAME
0/35 Flex Points Left

That’s right.  I’m just plain wiped out.  I have to get up WAY TOO early to drive WAY TOO far to go to school tomorrow so I just need to go to bed.  Hope everyone is having a great week!  Here’s what I ate today: 

Food	Core/Pts
Kashi cereal	Core
banana	Core
apple	Core
Vegetable Soup	Core
Pudding	Core
SF Hot Chocolate	0 pts.
Veggie and brown rice stir fry Popcorn Fudgesicle	Core Core  1 pt.
Totals	Core + 5
Fruits & Veggies	5/5
Healthy Oils
Protein	0/2
Dairy	2/2
Water	7/8
Daily Activity Log - Nothing
29/35 Flex Points Left

That is how I feel about this whole weight loss process. I keep thinking I am going to get on the scale and it going to say the same thing it always used to. Tonight I went to the gym and did cardio for 1 HOUR (it was a miracle I know!) and after I was done I went to weigh on the scale and it said 136.4 which is exactly what it should say. I don’t know why I’m always so shocked to see that that is REALLY actually what the scale says. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like I’ve actually lost almost 10 pounds, it just seems really hard to believe, but stepping on the scale tonight really validated that it IS actually happening and I really HAVE lost weight! Just a thought.

Another thought I was thinking while I was sitting in my other boring class today was one of the reasons why I LOVE Core. When I very very briefly tried the Flex plan I was always “scared” to use points so if I wanted something (and of course it would always “cost” me points) I would just decide I’d rather not eat it than “waste” points. On the Core plan, I feel like I can have something whenever I want, and as long as it is a Core food, it doesn’t “cost” me anything!

My third thought….I am so thankful that I have such a WONDERFUL weight loss buddy. She keeps me so encouraged and motivated to keep going forward!

Here is what I ate today: (For some reason my GIGANTIC chart isn’t working)

Breakfast: Oatmeal (Core)

Snack: 2 manderin oranges (Core)

Lunch: Tamale (Core + 4 Flex points)

Dinner: 1 Pork Taco with 0 point tortilla (Core)
Pudding (Core)

Snack: Popcorn (Core)
Fudgesicle (0 points)

Exercise: ONE HOUR OF CARDIO! YAY!
Water: Plenty of it!
18 Flex points left for the week!

This will just be a food entry.  I don’t feel very well and want to go to bed :( 

P.S. I went on a field trip with my class today and the provided lunch (silly me for imagining it would have been at all close to something Core!) was a turkey sandwich on wheat bread, apple, chips, and I did NOT eat the cookie.  I definitely used more flex points today than I have EVER used this early in the week.

Food	Core/Pts
Life cereal with FF milk	CORE + 3
Turkey sand.	CORE + 2
banana	CORE
apple	CORE
chips	1
Curves bar	1 Flex point
COLDSTONE (but it was good!)	5
Pork	CORE
Totals	0
Water	8/8
Fruits/Veggies (at least 6)	only 3-4
Healthy Oils
Protein (2)
Dairy (2)
Exercise - Does chasing 5th graders all day count?
23 Flex points left