Friday, January 21, 2011

Following up on current goals

If there's anything I've learned about being successful in my corporate retail job, it's the power of following up.
Here I am, applying my accountability skills to my health goals:
I set these goals 10 days ago, here:
1) Get back to 176 by Thursday by drinking lots of water and trying to stay within my points. Accomplished!
2) Get down to 170 in 6 weeks, on the 2/24 weigh in. I will do that by practicing the two things above, and also by exercising regularly. In Progress
3) Improve flexibility on my right hip. This is because my right hip is very inflexble in yoga, and I feel it's holding me back and preventing me from doing some of the poses. I will do this by continuing to practice yoga and by challenging myself when stretching. I found this amazing Yoga lady on youtube, and started practicing some of her videos. One of which immediately started helping me open up my hips.... AMAZING.
4) Spend an entire week without eating chocolate, starting now. Almost... this was written on a tuesday. Sunday I had some chocolate. Will continue to try every day.
5) Get more sleep: I was sleep deprived last week and I felt overly tired and craving chocolate. In Progress (and it's working!)
6) Tighten my abs by continuing to practice Yoga, PiYo, and crunches. In Progress
7) Continue to track everything I eat YES
8) Continue to measure and have portion control. YOU BET!



Original weight: 222lbs
Current weight: 174.8lbs
Pounds lost: 47.2lbs 

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

A letter to my future self

So I was passing time with Stumbleupon  and found this cool little website: FutureMe.org
 Unable to resist the temptation, I wrote a letter to my future self. Here it is pasted below. It will be delivered to me 38 weeks from now, when I expect to have lost the remaining 38 lbs of my goal.

"Dear FutureMe,
I wish this would work in reverse. I wish I could get messages from you instead, but whatever. We need to take what we can get, right?

I hope when you get this, you will have reached your weight loss goal. If not, I hope you're close to it. We've come this far not to make it. We worked hard for this, and we're continuing to institute life-long changes in our behaviors toward food and exercise.

How does it feel to not be "chubby", FutureMe? I bet it must feel awesome.

Now that you've reached your goal, do me a favor: don't forget how you got there, and don't take your health for granted. Continue to nurture your body and take care of yourself.

Enjoy your slim, fit and healthy body!

Your best friend,
Present Me." 

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Getting back on track

As I mentioned on my last post, the holidays were full of temptations, breaks in routine and a general minefield that derailed slightly off my weight loss path. I say slightly because I still worked out regularly, and was able to not gain. Nevertheless, I also freaked out about my weight a lot! Especially on Mondays, after some particularly indulgent weekends. A few weeks in a row now, I've freaked out on Mondays, worked really hard through Thursday and was able to show either a small loss or a maintain at the WW weigh in.

What's been going on?


I've been having some fun. A couple of parties with wine, chocolate and appetizers. I love appetizers... there's nothing more genius than being able to try lots of different things in small portions. As much as I love this kind of thing, I realize how much it can derail me. I end up eating without quantifying, and later when I track... bang! 35 PointsPlus in 1 evening...

I know what you're thinking (if you're in WW): "That's why we have the 49 weekly PointsPlus!" yes, indeed. But if I haven't saved them for the occasion or planned my strategy, I'm in danger of falling back into old bad habits of mindless eating and general gluttony.

So here I am, during another "Damage Control" week, committing myself to getting back on plan, and to continue to do as well as I had been doing before the holiday. I thought I'd start by setting some small goals that I can hold myself accountable for:

1) Get back to 176 by Thursday by drinking lots of water and trying to stay within my points.
2) Get down to 170 in 6 weeks, on the 2/24 weigh in. I will do that by practicing the two things above, and also by exercising regularly.
3) Improve flexibility on my right hip. This is because my right hip is very inflexble in yoga, and I feel it's holding me back and preventing me from doing some of the poses. I will do this by continuing to practice yoga and by challenging myself when stretching.
4) Spend an entire week without eating chocolate, starting now.
5) Get more sleep: I was sleep deprived last week and I felt overly tired and craving chocolate.
6) Tighten my abs by continuing to practice Yoga, PiYo, and crunches.
7) Continue to track everything I eat
8) Continue to measure and have portion control.

I can do this!!!

Original weight: 222lbs
Current weight: 176.2lbs
Pounds lost: 45.8lbs