Creating the new me

Just a super short quote before I head out…..

being overweight is HARD.
losing weight is HARD.
maintaining a healthy weight is HARD.
choose your HARD.

I can’t take the credit for it though, I got it from Baggy Pants X 2, who got it off another blog. So I guess its slowly making its way around blogs

Have a great evening everyong

Well just got back from WI today, I lost a total of .8 pounds. I am pretty happy with that. I lost everything I gained on vacation and .8 more since my last WI 2 weeks ago.  I’ll take it :)  I am really anxious to get to my first 25 pounds loss.  I think I can do it in 2 more weeks.

 I have been looking a lot at Bento’s lately, and watching some of the BentoTV episodes.  It’s been really fun, and I am anxious to get my Bento Box. I haven’t ordered it yet, but will as soon as I find the one thats right for me.  Sounds like a few other people are jumpin’ on the Bento Bandwagon too :)  Yippee!!!! 

I am not looking forward to this weekend as far as food goes. DBF and I are taking a road trip to Montana to stay with a few of his friends.  We’ll take the 6 hour drive after work on Friday and stay with one set of friends. Then on Saturday we drive about 1 hour to stay with another set of friends. Then Sunday we’ll start driving home, and stop and see my parents on the way.  So it’ll be a lot of time in the car, and a lot of food challenges to deal with. I am going to pack my healthy foods, and eat as wisely as I can. I am really motivated to keep reaching towards my goal, and I don’t want another “setback”

Hope everyone has a great OP Day! TTFN

Before yesterday I had no idea what a Bento box was. But after reading Nath’s post I really want one. 

Basically its a Japanese lunch box, it goes way back and is very traditional, but they make so many cute ones now. How did I not know about these? I am such a “gadget’ person?  They keep everything separate and in their own compartments.

I looked at some on Ebay, and I think I am going to invest in one. What a fun way to take lunches or dinners on the go. Especially if it encourages me to eat more healthy, home cooked meals. I am now on the search for the perfect set.  Nath promises to post a picture of her bento box, and I’ll do the same. She’ll also post some recipes of what she is putting in her box, I can’t wait.

 I’m having a great day so far. I had a wonderful weekend, and I just wanted to tell myself  “I am proud of U”.  I have eaten perfectly since last Thursday. I have only used 2 flexies, and have journaled everything.

I got some much needed “me” time this weekend. Saturday DBF had to go to a funeral all day long. So I went shopping, got some great food, and some new shoes!  Then went to a scrapbooking crop from 6pm - midnight. I have so much fun at those, I can’t wait to do another one. I even got done our whole vacation from last week in Montana. I have NEVER gotten this caught up on scrapbooking. 

Then Sunday I had a lazy day around the house, cleaned up some, did laundry and enjoyed the crisp fall day.  You can sure tell fall is here. I had all the windows and doors open to the house and it was a bit chilly.  Then I watched the Bears     football game, that was depressing. But the feeling didn’t last long, and I am back today with a great attitude and spirit.

Hope everyone is having a great OP Day!

I feel like I am finally back in my groove and in control of my eating.  Vacation was fun, but hard to face the facts when I returned. I jumped on the scale (Ok, stepped gingerly) this morning to find that almost my entire gain from vacay was gone!  About 1 more pound and I’ll be back in the losing mode. My goal for next WI on Thursday is to post a loss. Any loss I’ll take. Then I really want to hit the 25 pound mark by mid October!  Then one month and it’s Mexico Baby…hopefully I can lose a total of 35 lbs by then.  That’s the goal anyway. I updated my goals page to make things a little more realistic in light of my past few weeks of not losing.

I just gotta stay determined, focused, and resilient to the food challenges. I can do this. My biggest fear is falling off the wagon and giving up. Usually in a “diet” I give up about now. I don’t see the results i want, or I hit a little rut and just give up, gain all the weight back plus a little more. But this is different, this is my new lifestyle.

I’ve been trying all kinds of soups lately for dinner. They have been really filling and I have enjoyed having a big bowl of soup for dinner with a whole wheat roll. I had a lentil soup w/ ham one night, and a vegetable barley soup the other night. Both were excellent. I’m gonna have to break out the crock pot soon and delve into fall soups! 

Well better run. I still have some catching up to do on everyones blogs!

Happy Friday

It feels good to be home. I had a great vacation full of so many adventures and memories. I did things that will stay with me for a lifetime. However the few pounds I am up are outta here, they won’t stay with me for long at all. 

This vacation provided more food challenges than I can shake a stick at. I have NEVER had as good of food in my whole entire life as to what was served at the Ranch 24 hours a day.  I tried to live by my vacation guidelines, but it was hard and I didn’t do so good. I didn’t stuff myself (Ok…once), and I tried to get in more activity. Nonetheless the scale is up a few pounds so I chose not to weigh in today.  I’ll give myself a week to get back on track and lose the few pounds (probably not fat) that I gained over the vacation.  I ate awesome yesterday, and it feels good to be in charge again.  I call the shots, and I won’t let anything get me off track.

 I’ll try to post a picture from vacation, but we had a great time. We drove hummers over a gnarly course. We whitewater rafted the Yellowstone River, and visited Yellowstone Park. We fly fished on a private lake, and shot clay pigeons (I didn’t enjoy that very much).  We had big parties under the big sky, and ate and drank to our hearts content. 

But…It’s over. Time to face the real world. Back to work and back to WW’ers.  I’ve got a lot of catching up to do on everyone’s blogs too. I’ve got my work cut out for me, I better get cracking!

Ok, WI was this morning. It was not good, I gained .4 lbs.  I know that I should not be discouraged by this, and I am determined to not let this set me off course. However; I have to get some major venting out so here goes~

Over the last 3 WI’s I have gained twice, for a total of .8 lbs. The time I lost I lost  3.2 which more than makes up for the gains. But I HATE the gains.

 My loss last week was enough to make it to my 10%, but now with the gain this week I haven’t lost 10% quite (.2 from it), and I feel like I don’t deserve it.

I had a rough week food wise. I made OK choices, but not nearly as good as I could have made, and not as good as I have been making in the past.

I just really don’t want this to de-motivate me.

I leave for a 4 day vacation Saturday morning and I am so worried that I will come back with a gain next Thursday too. I have to be prepared for this and continue to stay motivated.

This week I WILL:

Continue to Journal

Follow my 10 rules for vacation and travel I posted earlier this week

Go to my WI and meeting next Thursday, if its a gain I need to OWN it.

Start an exercise routine - Use my Gym membership.

Not let any of this derail me, this is so important to me.

In retrospect, I still have lost over 20 lbs in 12 weeks.  If I hadn’t choosen to do WW’ers I would weigh 20 pounds more, and I wouldn’t be as healthy. I am trying so hard to stay positive, but its so much of a mind game. 

I have such great friends and family to support me, and all of you wonderful people. I don’t want to disapoint anyone, especially myself. I will not let this get to me. I look better, and I feel better and thats worth a lot. I’m going to keep on keeping on, and do even better at weight watchers, there’s always room for improvement, just a little more this week!

Ok, enough said. I am done venting and griping and whining.  

Well I don’t have much interesting to talk about lately. I’m still doing really well with my eating, but really need to get more exercise in. I’m gonna hit the Y next week, It’s been months since I’ve been there.  Things seem to be slowing down for me both at work and at home. I feel like I have more time in the evenings to get stuff done and relax, which I am really enjoying.

We leave Saturday morning for the Ranch in Montana.  3 nights, 4 days of pure fun. I can’t wait. I’ll post pics when I get back.  I have heard that they have massages also, which I have never had before so I’m anxious to try that out.

I went to see a motivational speaker last week, Jack Canfield, who is the editor/author of the Chicken Soup for the soul books.  It was a great speech.  He really believes in the power of positive thinking, and I do too. Not quite to the extent that he does, but it was still a really great time.  One thing that he mentioned everyone should do is make a list of 101 life goals. I actually started that. I am such a goal orientated person, and they really help me to stay on track.  So… I started writing my 101 life goals.  Here’s the problem, I got stuck at #18. I literally can’t think of anymore.

So…I think I’m going to start a journal and list every goal on a separate page. That way I have room to add more goals as I age. I’m thinking my top goals now aren’t even close to what they’ll be at age 50.  I can’t even imagine where I’ll be at that age, so I better leave some room to develop add’l goals as I get older.  So I’ll start with one goal on each page, and there’ll be plenty of room to add more goals later on .  Then when I accomplish a goal I can write a little about it, or even attach a picture to the blank space on that page. I think it’ll be a good Life Journal that hopefully will be very cool to look back on at all I have accomplished in my life.

Any thoughts on if I should write all 101 now, or just stop now at 18, to leave room for more goals later on in life? Right now my goals are focused on family, retirement, job, and traveling basically. So I have life goals already set when I want to retire, what I want out of my career, etc…. I’d be interested on others’ thoughts, or if anybody has already done this.

Well better run. I’ll catch up with everybody later

I took a picture of myself this weekend and have added it to my progression photos page. This is after 11 weeks on WW. A total loss of 21.2 pounds, and right after I reached my 10% goal.

In light of my upcoming trip. In order to hold myself accountable I have made a list of guidelines to live by in order to stay healthy, and continue my weight loss efforts while not at home.

1)  Relax, have fun, you are on vacation!  Relax, don’t stress about food and make the best choices available.

2) Choose healthy options when available, but don’t sweat it if there aren’t any.

3) Pay close attention to portion control, stop eating when you are full. No stuffing yourself.

4) Stay completely on program until the moment you leave home.  Don’t use the “no time” excuse or the “no food” excuse. Make time, and get the right foods in the house. 

5) Get completely back on program the moment you get home.  Don’t use the “no time” excuse or the “no food” excuse, the “no money” excuse, or the “too tired” excuse. There is always money for good, healthy food.  Make the effort.

6) Drink lots of water.

7) Alcohol.  Try to stick with zero calorie mixers if possible. But enjoy a few of the drinks you love along the way.

8 ) Pack healthy and low point snacks for drives, flights, hotel stays and the like.  That will save time searching for them later, and will save calories when you don’t have a choice of anything healthy at the vending machine or 7 Eleven.

9) Don’t be afraid to ask the waiter for special requests to your meal.  That’s what he’s there for, even in foreign countries it is OK to ask.

10) Walk more.   Getting as much extra exercise while on vacation will show on the scale at home.