Let's Refocus......

I lost 0.2 pounds this week. ZERO point TWO?!?! How annoying!!! It's SUCH a tease! Of course, my friends at my meeting said "at least it's a loss," but is it really?! Sure it is, but in all reality for how hard I am working, it should be more.  That means something needs to change because this is the second week in a row where I had only a nominal loss. Below is my weight loss chart since the beginning of the year....

 

I know "it's not always about the numbers" and I should "look at all of the success I've had so far".....I do that, but right now I say that's all BS!  I know I can do better, and it's time to get my a$$ in gear again!

So.....Let's REFOCUS....

Those of you that know me, know that when I see a problem, I setup a plan that will most likely get to the solution of the problem.  Thus, here's my plan to make sure I have at least a two pound (i.e. "reasonable") weight loss next week....

1) TRACKING - This is my biggest catch-22 in the world, plain and simple....I know it works, and that I need to do it, yet for some reason I don't. Frankly, I've been neglecting it lately, and this is unacceptable! Also, I NEED TO INCLUDE THE WEEKENDS! When I look back at the weeks where I lost the most, I tracked. To put it simply, "it is what it is." When I track, I lost consistently. No more of this "at least 5 days business." I'm tracking this week EVERY DAY even if it kills me! That means every beer, glass of wine, cookie, carrot, celery, lettuce, whatever.....if I eat it, then I write it!

2) Activity - this is a tough one for me because I have been super successful with getting into a great routine since I "fell off the wagon" at the end of 2009. I have been waking up at 5:30 a.m. most weekdays to get my workouts in at the beginning of my day so to ensure that: a) I actually workout; and b) I can enjoy my day without the gym taunting me all day. For the most part I have been doing exclusively cardio. This has been enjoyable, but I am missing my lifting sessions. I told myself that I would continue doing the cardio until I hit a plateau....it seems like this is happening.  Thus, I am going to begin incorporating 30 minutes of weight-lifting (in addition to 30 minutes of cardio on my lifting days) 3 days per week.  The other days I am going to continue with my 45 - 60 minutes of cardio in preparation for My Big Goal!

3) Alcohol - Okay, fine. I'll lay it out for you.....one of the greatest, most delicious tastes in to world to me is that first sip of beer at happy hour on a Friday after a long hard week of work and school (maybe a couple of  sips even).  As a rule, I don't drink from Sunday through Thursday other than an occasional glass of wine every now and then. It's just a rule I have for myself to keep me in check for my weight.  The problem is on Friday and Saturday I make up too much for the other five days of the week.....enough said. Therefore, I have decided that I am changing my habits (at least for this week) in two ways: 1) I am tracking (see number 1 above); and 2) NO BEER! Wine or liquor (with club soda) only....I drink less when I drink these anyways, and besides you get the biggest "bang" for your alcohol points when you drink these over beer anyways!

That's my plan for now....  Three goals that are attainable, challenging to a certain extent, and will "shake it up" a bit for my week. I'll see how it goes for the week, and adjust accordingly next week. In fact, after writing this, I'm excited to see what it does on the scale!

Quick Shout Out!

I went over to my friends' house last night for some dinner and entertaining, and I was THOROUGHLY grateful and impressed at how much they went out of their way to accommodate my healthy lifestyle. My friend Mark made chicken enchiladas that were DELICIOUS and were made VERY healthy (only 7 points per enchilada....I had two of them after my grueling last-chance workout at the gym). For dessert, my friend Kat made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies JUST FOR ME where she substituted some of the normal ingredients for whole wheat flour, egg beaters, etc. to lighten up the recipe. The cookies were AMAZING, and you would never know that there were any substitutions (I had two of those as well....I couldn't resist even though I knew I had to weigh-in this morning). I was just so grateful that my friends were willing to change their "not so" healthy lifestyles to accommodate mine.  And they both loved eating healthy too! Thanks, guys! ;-)

That's it for now.  I have a few different blogs coming up soon, so keep a lookout for those. Thanks for all of the support, and keep the comments coming!