Weigh in day 9/24/09, plus 9/14/09

Since I last updated I both experienced and then broke through a plateau. My weight loss has been going slowly lately, so last week I tried really hard to stay on plan and exercise. When I weighed in I was frustrated because I didn't lose a thing. So, at my cousin's wedding this weekend, I sort of let go and ate everything. I expected to gain this week but instead I've lost 2.4 lbs!

I also went to my Dr. back home for the first time since last November. She was thrilled with how much weight I've lost! I asked her to look back for my heaviest weight and she said in October of 2008 I was 225 lbs! It was really motivating to hear how far I've come. Hopefully I really have broken through this plateau and I'll have another big loss next week!

Weigh day 9/10/09 - just one pound?

I was actually excited about weighing in this week because I followed the plan closer than I have in a long time. With my boyfriend in Texas, I didn't go to a SINGLE restaurant. I used all my weekly points, but for the first time in a loooong time, I didn't use ANY of my activity points. Also, I got a lot of activity points by frequently doing a long and difficult bike ride. I was expecting a huge loss, but all I lost was a pound. It feels like a failure :(

Weigh in day 9/3/09 - How did I lose???

Somehow I lost 0.2 lbs! I was expecting a huge gain - I had told myself to expect at least 2 lbs of a gain, but I feared it would be even more. I mean, come on, while I was in Texas my bf and I went to restaurants every night, and we almost always got appetizers and desserts. Then when I got back there was a family reunion with a potluck of southern food, and then a birthday celebration for my mom and sister where I went to town on the cake. I was resigned to gaining weight. Like I said, I did work out every day that I was in Texas (except on the weekends), burning 600 or more calories each time, but I only thought that would reduce the damage. This is newly motivating for me - I was going down through the 180's pretty quickly until I started sabotaging my own efforts. I think if I recommit and stick with the plan I can burn down through the 170's.

Weigh in day 8/27/09 - who knows?

Today is my weigh in day but I'm about 2000 miles away from my scale so I won't be weighing in until next Thursday. I'm kind of glad, though, because I've probably gained weight this week. I'm visiting my boyfriend, who had to move to Texas for a job. He just moved here a couple of weeks ago and I came to visit him once he got settled into an apartment. I've been here for almost a week now and we've gone to restaurants EVERY night! It's part of exploring a new place - we picked up one of those dining guides from the tourism office and we've been going to places listed in the "Best" categories of the area. For example, under "Best hamburger" was Twisted Root Burger Co, a restaurant that's been featured on the food network. So of course we went there to try the burgers and the fries that they cut themselves. And then an italian pizza place (actually we hit that one twice because it was so good), a fancy latin american place, a contemporary indian restaurant... tonight we are going to some place called "Midevil Times" where you eat a "feast fit for a king" as you watch knights joust. We're not really interested in the food so much as the show, but the food will be there. SO this past week I tried to track as much as possible, and my weekly points were probably the furthest into the negative that they've ever been. However, my bf's apartment complex has a gym, so I've been going there and doing cardio for an hour each day to try to make up for all the restaurants. I doubt it'll do much but it might at least keep off a pound or two. Maybe instead of gaining 5 pounds I'll gain 3? Who knows.

Anyway I've decided that since my WW week starts over today, I'm going to actually try to stay within my points this week and work out every day. Maybe I can undo some of the damage I've done so I won't be too unhappy next Thursday. In the meantime I'm having a blast!

Weigh in day 8/20/09 - Small loss, but I reached a goal!

While I only lost 0.6 lbs this week, that was exactly the amount I needed to lose to reach my next goal, which was the halfway point to my final goal! I've lost 36 lbs, and now I need to lose 36 more to reach my goal!

This week was a mix of good and bad. I ate way over my weekly points - my "pig out" friend came over for the weekend and we went to restaurants. I tried very hard to restrain myself and I think I did pretty well - when she left I had eaten all my weekly points and just 8 of my activity points. If I had left it at that, I probably would have seen a bigger loss. But then I got tempted at the grocery store... I was in the frozen food/dairy section, innocently following my roommate as she looked at cheese, when I saw one of those individual slices of cake that they make at the bakery. The bakery is on the exact opposite side of the store, but someone had picked up this piece of cake and then abandoned it on a shelf in the frozen food aisle under some pizza crusts. It looked sooo good... I read the label and discovered that it was "old fashioned fudge cake," with yellow cake and fudge icing. I couldn't resist... so that gave me -5 weekly points, which I vowed to make up with more activity. If I had just left it at that, it would have been fine... BUT the next day my roommates wanted to celebrate my belated birthday - they had been out of town during my actual birthday, and that night we were all free. So we rented a movie and got tortilla chips, nacho dip, and, yes, we all got a piece of cake from the bakery section of the same grocery store. I went with the same old fashioned fudge cake... so after that fiasco my weekly points were waaaay into the negative :(

BUT to make up for it I rode my bike 5 days this week, for an hour each time. My new heart rate monitor tells me that I burn anywhere from 600 - 700 calories each time I do this, so I figured I might actually see a loss this week in spite of everything. I also drank a pitcher of crystal light a day - that's 4 quarts - so I thought maybe the increased water consumption would help too. And I did see a loss this week, just a small one. I know that if I hadn't gone over my weekly points I would have seen a huge loss, but I'm happy I made it to the halfway point.

Weigh in day 8/13/09 - big loss!

Wow, 3.4 lbs! This makes up for the weight I gained last week. I was afraid I would have a gain or a very small loss, because I was slightly in the negative with my weekly points and I didn't get as many activity points as I wanted to. Only 0.6 lbs until I am halfway to goal!

Weigh in day 8/6/09 - Big gain :( :( :(

Stupid birthday! It totally threw me off track and I gained 2.6 lbs. I'm back to where I was 2 weeks ago! My birthday got dragged over several days because I had to celebrate it on different days with my family and my boyfriend. Then there would be leftover cake... also we found out this week that my boyfriend got a job 2000 miles away from here, so that added to my eat-whatever-I-want mentality. But I think that weight gained quickly can be lost quickly, so I'm going to get back on track and try to shake all this off! I'm still pretty bummed though :(