Losing

When I got back from Hawaii I weighed myself. If you saw my recent post, Weight Loss is Humbling, I admitted that the original weigh in hadn’t been accurate and I was heavier than I thought. I admit, it depressed me. I cried a little bit at the shock; I was angry at myself for letting it get that bad; I was kicking myself for not weighing myself EVERY WEEK since getting back. Had I done that, I would have caught the inaccuracy quicker and probably could have righted the ship sooner, too.

After the shock on the scale I started doing a few things:

I measured my food. Even salad dressing. For years I eye-balled a lot of stuff and it worked for a long time. But clearly I need to measure right now.

I ate fruits and veggies for snacks. I was already eating fruit as a morning snack during the week. But instead of some of the other not-so-healthy snacks I had been eating, I switched to eating raw vegetables and hummus (the hummus was portioned control packets from Costco).

I ate lean proteins, vegetables and salads for dinner. I told Michael that I wasn’t going to be eating pizza or “unhealthy” things for awhile. While we only ate pizza once a week (usually Friday nights) and it was Papa Murphy’s deLite pizza (low in calories), I didn’t want to eat a food that used to be a trigger for me. Besides, there are better choices I can make while I’m losing this weight.

I limited alcohol. Being on vacation I got a bit lazy with my liquid calories. Now I’m limiting it to Friday and Saturday nights only, and 1 glass of red wine. It’s not a huge deal to limit that for me but where I struggle is social events. We went to a Halloween party and it was difficult to not drink, for example. I wanted to have fun like everyone else!

I’m trying to limit candy. My downfall, always. Candy is where I struggle. Chocolate. Candy. Halloween candy. Baked goods at work. Sucks! But I’m doing my best to limit what I take in.

No Nog! At least until December 1st. I love eggnog. I know it’s an either love it or hate it kind of thing but I love it and usually buy it when it first arrives in the grocery store–somewhere around mid-November. This year I am waiting until December. I usually buy the light version but still, that’s a lot of calories. Waiting is a good thing. It will still be there…. 🙂

I’m also weighing myself once a week, even though the natural fluctuations on the scale stress me out. After seeing the shocking number on the scale, I weighed myself four days later and saw a small loss, so that was encouraging.

More Progress

Week One – Lost .08 pounds

Week Two – Didn’t weigh myself (PMSing!)

Week Three – Lost 1.8 pounds

Week Four – Sick! Weight stayed the same though

Week Five – Up 1 pound

Week Six – Thanksgiving…whomp whomp

PSA: Do not weigh yourself the day after Thanksgiving. For several reasons…first, it will just be discouraging. That can lead to feeling like giving up. Second, it might not be an accurate weight. Give it a few days, THEN step on that scale.

I’ve also been going to the Warrior Room consistently since being back from Hawaii. Getting back has helped me a LOT with my Runner’s Knee issues. The hard part is that I tend to gain weight at the Warrior Room. People tell me not to worry about that because it’s muscle, it’s my body composition changing, the number on the scale doesn’t mean I’m fat…blah blah blah. I’m still concerned about the number on the scale and dismissing it as “it’s muscle!” doesn’t really make me feel any better. So sure, while my body has become more muscular and I’m seeing some definition in areas I’m still focused on getting that number back under 150 pounds and I’d like to see my muffin top disappear.

One thing I noticed was that I think part of my problem coming back from vacation was I didn’t make the mental shift to “losing.” I’d been in maintenance mode for so long and could really eat whatever I wanted (in moderation) and not see a blip on the scale, that when I started to try and lose weight I wasn’t creating a deficit with my calories. That’s required for LOSING weight and I was comfortable back in maintenance mode where I ate all of my calories. Nope, nope, nope. That’s not how it works. A major DUH moment but yeah, you have to make that mental shift to LOSING.

This process is going much slower this time around. Stay tuned. I hope the next update is a little more positive!