Weigh in day 7/30/09 - another big loss :)

Apparently I should move every week, because I think all the calories I burned moving from my old house, moving into my new house, and then cleaning my old house really contributed to this week's loss of 2.6 lbs. I was incredibly active on moving day, moving tons of furniture and boxes. And then after that I spent a few hours each day cleaning the old house for about 3 days. I was worried I might actually gain weight because I ate over my weekly points and into some of my activity points, but I guess that was dwarfed by the sheer amount of activity I did. I'm so close to the halfway point!

Weigh in day 7/23/09 - I'm overweight!

I finally reached my next goal, which was to get out of the "obese" category! That's been very important to me, ever since the wii fit called me obese. Such a big loss kind of surprised me because I didn't get much exercise in - only 3 days this week, and I ate a few of my Action Points. But I was still within my points, so I guess it was ok. Now I have to lose just 4 more pounds before I'm halfway to my goal!

Belated update about weigh in day 7/16/09

This past weigh in I was only down 0.6 lbs from last week. But hey, better down than up. It's still a loss. I was hoping to reach 30 lbs of weight loss, but I guess that'll have to wait until this coming weigh in. On Thursday I went to my boyfriend's house and decided to bring cake mix and frosting with me to make cupcakes. I told myself they would be for him and his new roommates, and that I would only have a couple. Of course, this was unrealistic and I ended up having 4 that day and then 2 the next day. Luckily I am still (barely) within my weekly points and I've decided to ride for an hour every day until Thursday to make up for said cupcake incident. But I realized that before I started weight watchers I would have eaten 8-10 of those cupcakes and wouldn't have written it down or compensated with exercise; I would have pretended like it never happened. Obviously I still need to work on control, but it's nice to know that I'm getting better.

Weigh in day 7/9/09 - I don't understand it, but I'm not complaining!

Somehow I lost 1.8 lbs... in a 2 week time period that encompassed a cruise, the 4th of July, and a binge at Chick Fil A. Cruises are known for their food, but during the cruise I felt like I was balancing the food with enough activity. For breakfast and lunch my friends and I went to a buffet where I tried to eat fruit and salads and took it easy on the desserts and fatty foods. For dinner every night we went to a nice restaurant on board - the kind of place where they pull out your chair and put your napkin on your lap, and the menu changes every night. Luckily the portion sizes were small/realistic, so I couldn't do too much damage. We had dessert every night but it was always smaller than a normal dessert, although very very delicious. Most days we only ate 3 times a day, and throughout the day we would do activities like jet-skiing, swimming, or walking around a town. At nights we went to bars, the casino, and the dance club. I swear, I must have burned 10,000 calories at that dance club. One night we danced for what seemed like 2 hours (and probably was!) So I thought I just might lose weight over the cruise, or at least maintain. Then I got back a day before the 4th of July. For the 4th of July we went to a celebration at my aunt and uncle's lake house. We cooked out, then made ice cream sundaes. I also made Baily's floats - Baily's and icecream, mmmm! I thought that that might undo any weight loss I might have achieved. Finally, the night before last, my boyfriend and I went to chick fil a. It took me a few days to get back on plan because I kept craving sweet things, so at this point I was not exactly disciplined. I got an original chicken sandwich and we shared waffle fries, chicken nuggets, and a cookies and cream milkshake. So, after all that I was dreading weighing in today. But, lo and behold, I'm at 188! I was so afraid I would be back in the 190's, which was going to be really discouraging. Now I feel reeeally motivated - 3 lbs to go till my next goal!

Weigh in day 6/25/09 - Small gain :(

I guess I should have expected a gain - this past weekend I went home for father's day. For starters, I didn't exercise at all. Then my whole extended family came together to throw a surprise birthday party for my grandmother's 80th birthday. It was catered, complete with 7 layer chocolate cake for dessert. Then on father's day we had lunch with our extended family. It was a cookout with leftover cake for dessert. And then on father's day night my immediate family had dinner together - another cookout with leftover cake! Not to mention all the s'mores I made this weekend, using the many grills at all the cookouts. But I was feeling optimistic... why is it that whenever I'm certain I'll gain I always lose, and when I'm feeling optimistic I gain or have a small loss? Strange. Anyway, I'm still in the 180's - barely. To make matters worse, this week I'm going on a cruise from Monday - Friday. To make matters even worse, I'm going with my friend who has been my "pig-out" friend in the past... you know, the one friend that you can hang out with and eat as much as you want without being judged. The friend with whom you can go to a restaurant and pig out, then out for a large ice cream, then out to a movie where you pig out on popcorn. Sometimes she is dieting too, but right now she's kind of in an eating free-for-all and has already expressed her intentions to eat whatever she wants while on the cruise. I'm worried there will be peer pressure to eat and to avoid working out. On the phone the other day I talked to her about how I didn't want to gain weight on the cruise and how I wanted to work out, and she was like "Um, you only go on a cruise once in your life," suggesting I should really just forget the diet and pig out. I'm already fighting my own inner demons that tell me to eat eat eat, so if she adds her voice to theirs I'm afraid I won't be able to resist! And if I go back into the 190's I'll be upset :( It takes me a month to lose 5 pounds, and I could easily gain 5 pounds in a week of eating cruise food. I don't want to undo a month or more of hard work!

Weigh in day 6/18/09 - I broke into the 180's!!!

Wow! 2.6 lbs lost this past week! Remember, I was convinced that I would have either a very small weight loss or a gain. I guess bike riding every day has really made a difference! I have gone riding every day but 1 out of the last 12 days! I didn't go last Saturday because I had to be my cousin's wedding buddy in an out of town wedding she got invited to. Every ride is at least 45 minutes, and on the trail I ride there plenty of hills - long, slight hills and steep, challenging hills. I think it's really paying off! I'm so happy to be in the 180's - I thought I'd never get here! To be honest, I'm proud of myself for once :)

Off track already?

So on Friday, my bf and I went to a Mexican restaurant. I started the day off determined to do well: I used only 8 of my 26 points the whole day leading up to the restaurant, and I hadn't used any of my weekly points left. I also made sure to get in a bike ride, despite the 93 degree heat of that day. I thought that with 18 daily points and 35 weekly points, I had 53 free points and that that was a nicely sized buffer so I didn't have to worry about what I ate at the restaurant. Well, I was wrong... perhaps ordering their legendary nachos as an appetizer was a mistake. Perhaps ordering a chicken dish with a creamy sauce was also a mistake. Or perhaps ordering fried ice cream for dessert was a mistake. Really, the mistake was doing all three together. any 1 or even 2 of those things by itself would have been fine. But when I got home I tallied up the points as best I could without nutritional information from that specific restaurant, and I had gone slightly over 53 points - I think it was 56. Yikes! That wouldn't have been so bad, but the next day I had to go to a wedding with my cousin. At the reception there were hors devours (sp?) and cake. I had a reasonable plate of hor devours and a small piece of cake, for an estimated total (as I calculated later) of about 18 points! Ahhh! So I ended up going over my points that day too. So Friday and Saturday were just BAD. I failed at my goal of staying within my weeklies, only a day after making it! I am hoping that I can cycle 45 - 60 mins every day and somehow make up for this. It'll probably be either another week of slow weight loss or a gain, but I hope not! Please please please be kind to me, O weight loss gods, for I am but a lowly mortal!

As a side note, I decided to change my goal weight from 150 to 145. 150 is just still too close to overweight for my height. I feel like 145 puts me in a safer area.