OK! Here goes! No more excuses! Put the pedal to the metal! Carpe diem!
This year is a big year for me. I knew that on January 1st of this year. (Well, ok, really, I knew it December 10, 2011 – I got engaged that evening, and had a feeling we’d agree that the wedding would be next year.) So, yes, getting married in October! Woot!
My fiancé lives in Toronto; I live in St. Catharines. He was born in TO, and has lived most of his life there. He LOVES Toronto. He’s happier there than I am here. Ergo, I’m moving out of my parent’s house for the first time into my home that I’ll eventually share with my future husband sometime in the next few months. Moving/My First Place! Woot!
With the moving will come a change of workplace scenery – I’ll be starting my job hunt up there soon. New job! Woot!
Additionally (and, to not sound/be self-centered) there are a lot of changes AROUND me – my brother and his wife had their third little boy, so now I’m an Auntie to four nephews and a niece! Our family got two Airedales who are just awesome. We’re truly an Airedale family! One of my closest friends is probably moving to Vancouver later this year in pursuit of her dream of being an actress, which is all kinds of happy and sad. Happy, because I admire her spirit/bravery for doing that, but sad because I’ll miss her being close by! Another close friend has not one, but TWO bands she’s in, and both are doing pretty darn well! A lot of people close to me have finished schooling, and are starting their careers, and I’m so proud of them all. When I look forward to Christmas, I realize that it’ll be the first time I’ll have to co-ordinate with my family for coming down to see them and the rest of the crew!
So, as you can see, this is a big year. Now, to the point of this post…
I joined Weight Watchers for the 2nd (and LAST) time in November of 2010. I was at my heaviest I’ve ever been, and almost cried at the scale. My first week, I lost 5 pounds! I was so excited! I kept doing well, with minor setbacks, and was well on the road to my goal weight, 80 pounds less than what I weighed. Well, by Summer 2011, I started to slip a little – a weekend away here, a stressful day at work there, and before I knew it, the weight that I’d lost was being found again.
Essentially, I blew my entire Summer – 8 weeks where I could have really made progress, but instead, made excuses. Finally, around October, I started smartening up, and got my focus back. “NEXT Summer, I’ll be closer to my goal!”
Well, it’s the start of Summer this week, and I’m back up around where I started last Summer at, maybe more. I was doing well for awhile, but got lax and lazy, and yeah.
To my credit, I HAVE been exercising – admittedly, probably not as hard/much as I should be, but I’m making that effort daily. I think that my body might be changing shape, but not dropping weight at this point.
Really, when I look at it, I have three major obstacles in my way:
1) Weekends! These are when I get to see my fiancé, either for one day, or all weekend. Obviously, we’ll need to eat at some point. He keeps saying he wants to lose weight, too, and that’s awesome! However, on average, one weekend a month, we’re travelling somewhere, or busy busy busy – so, eating right and healthy gets a little tricky/annoying. Yes, I could prepare a light Caesar salad with skinless chicken breast, maybe a little sweet treat of light Cool Whip and frozen fruit afterwards and water. But, but, but…I’m exhausted, and his leftover Chinese noodles are RIGHT THERE.
2) Linking to my last point, I am a LAAAZZZYYY BONES. So lazy. My first thought when I get free time is, “I could sleep!!” The thought of preparing meals that are weight-loss friendly is all well and good, but geez Louise, I gotta prep, cook, portion, and clean up EACH WEEK? Can’t I live off SmartOnes and Lean Cuisine and bagged light Caesar salads? …no? What did you say about my sodium intake?
3) Finally, linking to the first two points, money. Holy moly, eating healthy is pricey. Not crazy expensive, but fruit and veggies go bad quick!
Yes, when I think about these things all at once, I get depressed/frustrated/defeatist/angry. It’s tough!
But, I’ve had enough. I have roughly:
- 2 weeks before a friends’ pool party
- 3 weeks before my 10th High School Reunion
- 6 weeks before my only “vacation” this year (and it’s just a long weekend away)
- 9 or 10 weeks before a friends’ wedding
- 15 weeks before my wedding
Also, there’ll probably be a few wedding-related shindigs, and other events over the coming weeks.
Right now, my goal is to be down 16 pounds from my current weight for the wedding. Theoretically, I should have been closer to it by now, or even past it. But, no, we’re starting over now! I stayed late at my Weight Watchers meeting to feel like I was joining for the first time. There were a few Newbies at the meeting, so that helped in feeling like I was starting fresh.
The phrase they concentrated on last night was about choice, and I thought to myself, “It’s so true – I CHOOSE what I put in my mouth.” Food doesn’t grow legs and crawl into your mouth – and, if it does, you haven’t cooked it properly, or you’re in a horror movie. Either way, start running.
So, how do I combat the Big Three Issues I listed above?
1) Weekends: make the effort EVERY weekend to stock my car/purse/fiancé’s fridge with healthy options – more than likely, it’ll be fruits, and veggies. Inexpensive, healthy meals aren’t a big problem if we’re at his place. Like I said, it’s when I’m hungry/tired, and his leftovers are calling to me. Even grabbing a few apples for the ride up and the ride back could help!
2) Lazy Bones: As Nike has told us for years now, JUST DO IT. The weeks that I get up off my butt and prep my meals and make it Excuse-Proof I find are the ones that go smoother. If I leave things to chance or last-minute…it gets dicey. Yeah, I can eat WHATEVER I want, but to me, if I’m eating fast food and it’s not a “special” treat, meh. Just isn’t worth it. Plus, I get to practice cooking/baking the weeks I plan ahead. (I made a Lemon Mayonnaise pasta dish, as well as a 3-Bean Salad a few weeks ago – holy moly, TASTY. SOOO making them both for my friends pool party!)
3) Money: This one is a wee bit out of my hands, since there is no chance I’m getting a raise or winning the lottery or finding out a long-lost family member died and left me with a sizeable inheritance. I won’t lie, this week sucker-punched me, money-wise. Being a grown-up sucks. However, I gotta start being REALLY careful about my spending. I signed up for e-mail flyers from grocery stores I frequent, and one of the stores lets you create a Shopping List of items you usually buy. It’ll notify you (I hope) when they go on sale, so that’ll be good. Little more time, but if I can save some money and know where my foodie faves are on sale, BONUS!
Alright, now for the truly open part of the blog – what Weight-Loss Blog would be complete without the Before/After pictures?! I totally cringe to share these (who wouldn’t?) but I have tried losing weight a few times now, and have never done pics. Here we go:
I may take them with the mirror in front of the window next time. I’m thinking that I’ll do these once a month, and maybe when I start fitting into my older clothes that are so sad and lonely in my closet.
I just realized how long this post is – I’m sorry! Just a little more to go!
I’ve been exercising nearly daily for the last few weeks, roughly 10 or 15 minutes at a time. Since the recommended about of exercise is 150 minutes a week – 30 minutes for 5 days, or just over 20 minutes every day – I’m going to up my intensity AND time spent to 20 minutes Monday-Friday, with increases every week. Also, I really need to discipline myself to do it in the morning, so I don’t have to be at work and thinking about how I STILL have to exercise when I get home.
So, for this week:
1) Exercise daily for 20 minutes, at get to a point where I at least break a sweat
2) Track (write down) EVERYTHING I eat – that includes measuring and calculating the PointsPlus Values, using the Weight Watchers calculator
3) Get my needed water in daily
Challenges?
- my friends birthday! Happy Birthday!! Shouldn’t be too hard – she’s having a BBQ/get-together at her place, then heading off to a little pub/bar afterwards. I’m covering a shift at work that day, so I’ll have to brown bag my lunch – I’ll just fill up on healthy eats, and be able to really enjoy the BBQ eats and treats, and a few light beers. I have an action-plan, I’m good to go! (Heaven help me if her mom was able to make her famous potato salad – BEST potato salad ever, so not exaggerating!) At the end of the day, I’m more excited to spend time with my friend than to stress over food.
- I mentioned how this week was horrible, money-wise. Stress makes me crave comfort foods – I’ll just have to maybe stock up on wise choices and have them available to me all week. A good start? Weight Watchers just brought out Coffee Cake squares, and they are fantabulous. Oh my goodness. Even my fiancé loves them! If I have time, I might attempt a healthy recipe in bulk to have at the ready as well.
Ok, this post is uber-long. I’m done now, I swear. Just one more pic – it’s a printout of a picture I cannot seem to find right now of me at my lowest weight. I’m on the left, and the picture is posted as part of an inspiration collage around my mirror. That was 2006, and I was at my lowest weight – SLIGHTLY bobble-headed, yes, but overall, healthy, active, and HAPPY (not to mention super-hot, rawr!). I will get back to that weight, I will!
And thus begins the Magical Weight-Loss Adventure!
