So, how did we all survive the holidays? So far, not too bad on my end. When I started doing the Weight Watchers thing again, I decided that I wasn’t going to restrict myself at my holiday gatherings. If I wanted some of Grandma’s fudge, I had some of Grandma’s fudge. (Trust me, you would too… there’s no such thing as willpower where Grandma’s fudge is involved… it’s the best fudge you’ll ever taste.)
I don’t know the total scope of the damage, but I did weigh myself Christmas morning and I weighed exactly the same as I did last week, give or take a half a pound. It’s just so hard to tell on those dial scales! Given that I’d already survived three of five holiday meals, I was doing alright! Then yesterday morning it was right back to counting my points and making forward progress.
I did get a new scale (as the title suggests) for Christmas though. Don’t worry– I asked for it, and picked it out.

It is digital, so no more guessing whether the marker is on the line, or in between them. It also is supposed to measure body fat percentage and water content, but I honestly haven’t gotten the directions out enough to figure it out. I got halfway there once on accident, and then couldn’t do it again.
But the new scale, while easier to read, measures me as 5 lbs heavier than the other one, so there are some adjustments to the numbers in order. Since I’ll be using the new digital scale from now on, I’m going to change my starting weight to reflect the five pound difference, making that 244 instead of 239.

Starting Weight: 244
Current Weight: 238.5
Total Weight Lost to date: 5.5 lbs

Today is my second day of using the Weight Watchers food plan. So far, so good. I had gotten into quite the habit of just grazing all evening, so I’m struggling a little bit. It’s going to be good to re-teach myself when I’m hungry. Like right now. I’m blogging to keep myself busy for a minute because I want to go look for something to eat. I’m not hungry, but I keep trying to convince myself that I am. What’s with that?
I’ve been home from work for 2 hours and all I’ve had to eat is dinner? Oh, the horrors! I have some points left, so I will get a snack later, but right now I’m wanting to graze for the sake of grazing, and that’s going to be a struggle for a little bit I think.
I need to start thinking about exercise soon… I’ll still use my exercise DVDs that I have (I really wanted to add the word hopefully here, but what kind of a commitment is that?), but I’d like to do other things too. I had been thinking I might do some walking/jogging outside, but winter snuck right up on me. I’m in Indiana, and we’ve got some snow and ice on the ground now. Yeah, I don’t think so. I’d really love to get a treadmill or elliptical so that I could get moving… inside, where it’s warm. Even if it were a decent temperature outside… my neighborhood is not so great between the traffic and the creepy people lurking outside the bar down the road.

I’ve been in a stall pattern for the last month or so, but I’m looking to change that. In fact, I’m planning on starting Weight Watchers. I don’t have any intention of going to the meetings or anything, but I’m going to try follow the food plan. I haven’t started yet, but I’m going to as soon as I get materials in hand. It feels good knowing there’s a plan.
My best friend started weight watchers recently, and one of my friends at work is getting ready to resume her own diet plan, so I think now is a good time. The more support the better, especially since I won’t be paying for weekly meetings!

I’m sure it’s fairly obvious by my lack of updates, but I’m not really doing anything towards my weight loss right now. But my mom “gently reminded” me that I hadn’t posted here for 2 weeks, so I thought I’d at least pop in to say “Nope, still not doing things right.”
I haven’t written it off entirely, but I haven’t gotten started again yet either. Knowing that there are a lot of holiday meals over the next month makes it hard to want to really work it out… I’ll get back there, but it’s not happening right now. And I hate having to come here and say that.

When you go to Vegas, you will end up walking, walking, and walking. Then you’ll walk some more, and oh by the way, have I mentioned walking? My feet are screaming, but I’m thinking that if you actually leave the casinos at all, it has to be about impossible to gain weight in Vegas. I’ve probably done more walking in the last 3 days than I have in the past three months. I don’t know how much I’m going to be able to do when I get home though because let me tell you, my feet are KILLING me. And we still have a party tonight with not so good shoes!

Eat chips and salsa for breakfast.

Oops.

Here we are, one day past Halloween, probably surrounded by temptation… in the form of fun-size Snickers, Reeses’ Pieces, and Butterfingers. All in all, I bought a TON of candy, both to hand out to trick-or-treaters and to give out at work. I sent the remainder of last night’s candy with my mother, who will be taking it to work. That still leaves a huge grocery bag full of candy at my desk. I’ve been foisting it off on unsuspecting coworkers all day, but it will likely last into next week. Unfortunately, the willpower didn’t last nearly that long, and I have to admit, I’ve been grazing this afternoon.

How about you? What are you doing to avoid temptation?? Or are you currently sneaking an empty Baby Ruth wrapper into the garbage can?

I think it’s fairly obvious when I’ve been remiss in posting over here, it’s probably because I’m not doing what I should be doing. I haven’t been doing too horribly as far as eating is concerned, but I still manage to find ways to sabotage that with cookies, or Burger King for dinner, or Halloween candy while sitting at my desk at work.
And workouts? Ha! I haven’t done one since Thursday night… I started Friday’s workout, but shut it off because my friend arrived, and I wanted to talk to her rather than have her watch me workout for another 20 minutes. The days between now and then?? Some of the skipped workouts were for legitimate reasons and others weren’t. I’m not sure what’s holding me back at this point. I’ll be leaving for Vegas a week from today, and I keep thinking “well, I won’t be on plan that whole week anyways… maybe I just better start again when I get back.” I think I just figured out what’s “holding me back.”
I won’t be working out today either– no time, being Halloween, and no motivation either, to be honest. Tomorrow, we’ll just have to see. In any case, I’ve got the coming back from Vegas and getting on track in my mind…

I don’t know if anyone can relate to this or not, but my favorite part of the workout DVDs is the point where we get to the on-the-floor exercises. I’m still working just as hard, but it feels a little more like resting, take the pressure off my back, etc. Inevitably there is a point where this is only one thought going through my head. Any idea what that might be??

It is, of course, “I need to vacuum my carpet!”

At some point, we’ll be face down, for some stretch or something of the like, and all I can focus on is how dirty, and cat hair-y my carpet is. So yesterday I got the bright idea– I vacuumed immediately BEFORE my workout instead of right AFTER it. Of course, I did a full Cardio Overdrive DVD for the first time, and wouldn’t you know it? No on the floor exercises or stretches. Figures.

I’m finding, more and more, that my biggest hurdle is just getting started. If I’m not feeling like doing my workout, for whatever reason, I find that if I just go ahead and get started anyways, 90% of the time, I’m fine. I complete the workout, and feel better for having done so. If I don’t complete the workout then I gave in to the desire to be lazy, and I feel guilty for skipping out on my commitment to myself.
As you may have guessed, yes, I did finally start my workout last night, and yes, it was fine. I certainly felt better about myself than I did the night before when I DID choose to skip the workout. I’m definitely planning on doing tonight’s workout, though it’s easy to be motivated to do it when I’m still chained to my desk at work. Maybe I need be better about starting the workout shortly after I get home… procrastination seems to be my downfall. The longer I put it off, the more time I have to make excuses about NOT doing it.
Makes me think of the Nike magazine ads that were out for awhile - “If you went running when you first thought about it, you’d be back by now.”