Point two...I had a point two gain today at my weigh in, for a weight of 205.2. I had been toying with 204 a couple of times this week, but didn't have a strong enough hold on it to make it stick at the weigh in. I go back and forth in my head...the negative self talk combated by the positive self talk and after enough rounds of this the positive wins. I am too close to breaking through the 204 barrier now. If I can hold 204 then push through it I will be thrilled. So time to think about what I can do to make this happen...
I don't track because as WW writes in much of its material some of us aren't wired for tracking. I wholeheartedly agree. I am aware of what I eat and make as many choices Power Food as is possible. Practically all I eat is based on the power foods and recipes I have gotten from WW. I have my moments of course, when I splurge, but I don't believe them to be so much that it is preventing me from losing. So beyond making sure I stay mindful about my eating and continuing to make "powerful" choices, I need to exercise more, perhaps make treadmill time 45 mins instead of only 30. I am already doing some weights for shaping my legs, but not so heavy as to build too much muscle. I am aware that could be slowing my efforts as well.
My husband mentioned juicing to me this morning and I cringed. Seems he watched a documentary about it and is curious. My thinking is I don't want to do anything extreme, because the results would likely be temporary. The last "extreme" thing I did was Lindora before my wedding. I could not continue to live and eat that way so the weight came back. I don't care to repeat that. That makes me think of something my WW leader said today, it was something like if you tire of restarting, stop quitting. I want to make my weight loss stick, I want it to become what WW prepares you for, a life style change.
More on this juicing thing when I see the documentary later today. I enjoy eating too much to do juicing well. My husband proposed doing it when I was on summer break (if I do it at all) and I think that would be wise. I get incredibly grumpy when I haven't eaten!
I have written through all the Tools for Living now, so I will go with the topic of the week at WW or whatever strikes my fancy. I feel confident I am committed to weekly blogging now.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Choosing an anchor
I was able to go to my WW meeting today and it felt good. I haven't been able to go for a few weeks due to my son's soccer games, as well as my own negative feelings about my weight. I felt I had a good week and was ready to face the WW scale again. As I have written before, I average my scales...I have my old scale which I refer to as the "mean" scale that adds a pound or two to what the WW scale says, then I have the new "nice" WW endorsed scale, which seems to take a pound or two off. I find I enjoy the harshness of the "mean" scale so that I am surprised at WW rather than the kindness of the "nice" scale which leaves me pissed on the WW scale. So for the past few weeks I have been averaging my weight between the two scales as logic would suggest this would get me a truer prediction of what I will weigh on the WW scale. The lowest I saw this week was 204, but for the past few days I have been 205. I went to my WW meeting eager to see if my scale routine would match up and it did! the WW scale had me at 205 as well. YAY!
So the kicker is being able to hold on to that. I always seem to creep back up to about 208 once I come down this low. I have to combat that. My Winning Outcome/SMART Goal due date is soon approaching, as is my birthday. I would love to be able to give myself the gift of being under 200lbs by my birthday! That is 6lbs between now and May 6th. Hmmm..."6lbs by the 6th!" I want that so bad!
I am a multitasker. I cannot sit in any sort of meeting and not be doing something simultaneously. So what I tried today was to add to my weight loss scrapbook while listening to the meeting. I brought my scissors and glue and I always bring WW materials to the meeting to review anyhow so I selected one and cut out various bits and glued them in while listening to the leader talk. Today I glued in bits about eating out and portion sizes.
Tool for Living #8: Anchoring
From the WW site: "When sticking to the plan is tough, that's when you need Anchoring, a process for creating cues and triggers to remind yourself of your weight goal and the inner resources you have to achieve it."
So the kicker is being able to hold on to that. I always seem to creep back up to about 208 once I come down this low. I have to combat that. My Winning Outcome/SMART Goal due date is soon approaching, as is my birthday. I would love to be able to give myself the gift of being under 200lbs by my birthday! That is 6lbs between now and May 6th. Hmmm..."6lbs by the 6th!" I want that so bad!
I am a multitasker. I cannot sit in any sort of meeting and not be doing something simultaneously. So what I tried today was to add to my weight loss scrapbook while listening to the meeting. I brought my scissors and glue and I always bring WW materials to the meeting to review anyhow so I selected one and cut out various bits and glued them in while listening to the leader talk. Today I glued in bits about eating out and portion sizes.
Tool for Living #8: Anchoring
From the WW site: "When sticking to the plan is tough, that's when you need Anchoring, a process for creating cues and triggers to remind yourself of your weight goal and the inner resources you have to achieve it."
- Identify the inner resource you need to respond the way you want.
- Remember a time when you had that inner resource. Think about the circumstances that surrounded you. See what you saw, hear what you heard and feel what you felt at that time.
- Choose an anchor that will bring you back to that time in an instant: a mental picture, a word, a gesture or an object.
- Then, remember again that time when you had that strong inner resource. When the feeling you had then is strong within you, connect it to your Anchor.
- Use your Anchor by itself. Did it work? Are you in touch with your resource? If not, keep repeating Step 4 until your Anchor grounds you when times are rough.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
More frustration
I didn't go to my Weight Watchers meeting today, though I had the chance. I had a terrible week and didn't want it heightened on the scale. It was "that time" of the month again and I wasn't feeling my best. I did manage to keep my eating on track, though without regular exercise it does very little but maintain. My averaged weight was essentially 208 all week. I slept in today and when I finally got up and weighed in (in my bathroom) my averaged weight was 206. I was relieved to see that, but I have been 204 in recent weeks and I would LOVE to maintain that for a week, not just a few days.
I have been wrestling with a lot of negative self talk this week, but here I am, late and having missed a meeting when I could have gone, but I am still here. This is something I HAVE to do. I cannot fail and if I don't meet my Winning Outcome (WW SMART goal) then I write it again and keep trying.
Tool for Living #9: Reframing
From the WW Site: "There is a positive intention behind every thing you do. Sometimes, though, bad habits seem to get us the things we want. Reframing will help you find ways to realize your intention with a positive action."
For example, when I am stressed or having a bad day I want soda and candy BAD. I am a stress eater. If I am having a challenging day, I feel soothed by drinking a LOT of soda. While diet soda is allowed on the Simply Filling plan, I know that soda and all the chemicals in it are not good for me in the long run, so less soda is best.
There are some questions I need to ask myself in order to "reframe" a negative behavior:
I love making lists...so I think I will do that now. What alternate activities can I do to soothe myself?
Here were some suggestions from WW:
A more suitable list for me would be:
I will have to think on more alternatives. They have to be easy ones because I am often stressed at work, and I need to be able to use an alternative that I can pull off on a short break. Usually once I am home I am better about finding another way to cope with my stress. I usually exercise and watch one of my shows, or take a nap, or clean. One of my favorite ways to reframe is driving to my favorite loud music, that isn't always possible, but does help at the end of a challenging work day.
I have been wrestling with a lot of negative self talk this week, but here I am, late and having missed a meeting when I could have gone, but I am still here. This is something I HAVE to do. I cannot fail and if I don't meet my Winning Outcome (WW SMART goal) then I write it again and keep trying.
Tool for Living #9: Reframing
From the WW Site: "There is a positive intention behind every thing you do. Sometimes, though, bad habits seem to get us the things we want. Reframing will help you find ways to realize your intention with a positive action."
For example, when I am stressed or having a bad day I want soda and candy BAD. I am a stress eater. If I am having a challenging day, I feel soothed by drinking a LOT of soda. While diet soda is allowed on the Simply Filling plan, I know that soda and all the chemicals in it are not good for me in the long run, so less soda is best.
There are some questions I need to ask myself in order to "reframe" a negative behavior:
- What behavior do you want to change?
- What does that behavior get for you?
- How else can you get that benefit? (make a list of alternate activities)
- Which of these new behaviors would you be willing to try?
I love making lists...so I think I will do that now. What alternate activities can I do to soothe myself?
Here were some suggestions from WW:
- Take a hot bath.
- Walk the dog.
- Organize: sit down and make a list of the things that need to be done.
- Write in your journal.
- Read a book.
- Call a good friend and talk about it.
- Take an art class.
A more suitable list for me would be:
- Walk the dogs.
- Journal on my blog.
- Read a book.
- Text a friend.
- Play Words with Friends and Scrabble with my friends.
I will have to think on more alternatives. They have to be easy ones because I am often stressed at work, and I need to be able to use an alternative that I can pull off on a short break. Usually once I am home I am better about finding another way to cope with my stress. I usually exercise and watch one of my shows, or take a nap, or clean. One of my favorite ways to reframe is driving to my favorite loud music, that isn't always possible, but does help at the end of a challenging work day.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
More of the same...
I could not attend my WW meeting today on account of an early soccer game so I did what I always do in that case, and go with my scale's weight. Now I have been using two scales this week...mean scale (my old one that tacks on about 2 lbs over my official WW weight) and nice scale (the new one that has me weighing nearly 2lbs less than my official WW weight). I have been weighing in on both of them and taking an average. On the whole I was about 206 all week and am as of this morning as well. Would have been nice to compare this to the official WW scale, and it seems I won't be able to do that next week as I thought because a make up game has been scheduled for 9am next Saturday when we were supposed to have an off week. So doesn't look like I can have another official weigh in until the Saturday after next.
If my scale averages prove true that would mean I was down from the 207.8 from last week that the official WW scales reported. I am guarded about this though.
I felt I was a bit better about Power Foods this week. If I consider my weeks starting with weigh in days, I did get all 4 days in of exercise. I cooked some new recipes this week that were yummy and from the WW site...Chicken Posole, Egg Salad, Fig Pork, and Baked Potato. I didn't have a microwave lunch all week and didn't miss them in the slightest. I have been having shrimp cocktail and leftovers. I had hoped to see my weight go down a bit more, but I suppose I am still eating more than I should and not working out as hard as I could. I do enjoy eating and get grumpy when hungry or feeling deprived, so I plan on kicking it up a notch during exercise time.
I have had some fun putting together my weight loss scrapbook. Here is a photo that samples some of the pages, I won't bore anyone with photos of ALL the pages I have put into it thus far, but it is more than what is shown.
I will be adding the recipes I tried this week to the book as well as continue to make my way through old WW materials and cut out what I like. I was surprised to find the Tools for Living in my old materials, thought I shouldn't have been. It is easy to get overwhelmed with information when starting something new, and for all the times I have been at meetings, the Tools for Living are rarely mentioned so then never really stood out to me until I stumbled across them and began to blog about them.
Tool for Living #6 - Positive Self-Talking
From the WW site: "Positive Self-Talking can help you learn how to use words that will keep you motivated and make you feel and perform better."
This tool for living seems pretty straightforward to me, though it is easier said than done. I am much better are recognizing negative self talk and working at keeping the positive self talk going. I admit to feeling discouraged and most often my negative talk is "Why bother? You are just meant to be a big girl." I hear that talk in my head more than anything else and it has derailed me before. I recognize it for what it is and push it out of my head. I think about what it would be wear what I like and not worry about looking fat...then I usually get "You know that isn't possible, you have never looked like that" and I end up arguing with myself until I recognize that anything is possible...where there is a will there is a way. This whole process is why the blog is named what it is, I have all sorts of conversations with myself!
So I soldier on thinking "You can do this," "You know you want this," "You can have this," "You possess the abilities, the strategies, and the tools to meet your goals." Once again I cannot help but to think of SNL's Stuart Smalley and chuckle "I am good enough, I am smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!"Maybe I should change that to "I am good enough, I am smart enough, and doggone it, I KNOW I CAN DO THIS!"
If my scale averages prove true that would mean I was down from the 207.8 from last week that the official WW scales reported. I am guarded about this though.
I felt I was a bit better about Power Foods this week. If I consider my weeks starting with weigh in days, I did get all 4 days in of exercise. I cooked some new recipes this week that were yummy and from the WW site...Chicken Posole, Egg Salad, Fig Pork, and Baked Potato. I didn't have a microwave lunch all week and didn't miss them in the slightest. I have been having shrimp cocktail and leftovers. I had hoped to see my weight go down a bit more, but I suppose I am still eating more than I should and not working out as hard as I could. I do enjoy eating and get grumpy when hungry or feeling deprived, so I plan on kicking it up a notch during exercise time.
I have had some fun putting together my weight loss scrapbook. Here is a photo that samples some of the pages, I won't bore anyone with photos of ALL the pages I have put into it thus far, but it is more than what is shown.
I will be adding the recipes I tried this week to the book as well as continue to make my way through old WW materials and cut out what I like. I was surprised to find the Tools for Living in my old materials, thought I shouldn't have been. It is easy to get overwhelmed with information when starting something new, and for all the times I have been at meetings, the Tools for Living are rarely mentioned so then never really stood out to me until I stumbled across them and began to blog about them.
Tool for Living #6 - Positive Self-Talking
From the WW site: "Positive Self-Talking can help you learn how to use words that will keep you motivated and make you feel and perform better."
This tool for living seems pretty straightforward to me, though it is easier said than done. I am much better are recognizing negative self talk and working at keeping the positive self talk going. I admit to feeling discouraged and most often my negative talk is "Why bother? You are just meant to be a big girl." I hear that talk in my head more than anything else and it has derailed me before. I recognize it for what it is and push it out of my head. I think about what it would be wear what I like and not worry about looking fat...then I usually get "You know that isn't possible, you have never looked like that" and I end up arguing with myself until I recognize that anything is possible...where there is a will there is a way. This whole process is why the blog is named what it is, I have all sorts of conversations with myself!
So I soldier on thinking "You can do this," "You know you want this," "You can have this," "You possess the abilities, the strategies, and the tools to meet your goals." Once again I cannot help but to think of SNL's Stuart Smalley and chuckle "I am good enough, I am smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!"Maybe I should change that to "I am good enough, I am smart enough, and doggone it, I KNOW I CAN DO THIS!"
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