Celebrations

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Oh look, then and now!!

Yesterday in my Weight Watchers meeting my leader closed the meeting by saying:

We will continue to do the things we celebrate.  The small things make a big difference in the long run.

She's absolutely right.  When I was losing weight it was easy to celebrate the small things - the five pound increments, the milestones, the increase in activity.  However, now that I've lost the weight there are less things to celebrate.  A friend of mine, Carrie (she lost 150 pounds on Weight Watchers), and I were discussing this a few weeks ago and agreed that this is probably one of the things that makes maintenance hard.

So, with that in mind here are some of the small things that I've celebrated in the past... and things I want to continue celebrating going forward.  Things I previously celebrated:

1. Able to sit in an airplane seat with no seat belt extender
2. Able to put the airplane tray table down without being uncomfortable
3. Able to shop in any store (not just plus size stores)
4. Able to walk different distances:  first around the block, then 5K, then 9K, then 10K
5. Able to complete a basic running program and then half marathon training
6. Able to eat a meal and not be sick within twenty minutes (seriously, it has happened dozens of times.  Ask Dan or Sheri!)

Here are things that I will continue to celebrate:

1. Squash trigger food cravings, one day at a time
2. Finish a half marathon in less than 2 hours
3. Honestly measure/track what I eat/drink to stay focused

The lists are not all inclusive but are definitely a good starting place.  What little things do you celebrate?  How do you celebrate them?

Bread vs. Activity

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Look!  More activity!  Also, more weight.
Oops

If you're friends with me on Facebook you've likely seen me comment about how my half marathon training has begun, again.  I'm not sure why I didn't mention this on other social media channels.  Ooops.  Anyway, I went to my Weight Watchers meeting yesterday and stepped on the scale and my heart sank.  After last week's loss I was excited to be back on track.  However, the scale had other ideas and registered a gain this week.  At first I attributed it to the two amazing oatmeal raisin date cookies that I ate on Sunday.  Or the chips and hummus.  Or the pizza that I ate on Saturday.  And it may very well have been related to these things but I also realized that it could be related to the increase in activity.  Or *gasp* the fact that I, practically single handedly, ate an entire loaf of bread in less than week.

One of the reason that I really like Weight Watchers is that no food is off limits.  So while I dislike saying that I'm going to avoid any particular item, I do perhaps need to scale back the amount that I am eating.  I don't know that I'm removing bread from my diet forever but for now while I'm dealing with these stubborn pounds I will.  I think I also need to go back to tracking how much protein I'm getting in per day.  As I was nearing my goal weight that was one of the things I was tracking consistently but I've really gotten away from it.  The final change that I know I need to make is to reign in the amount of fruit that I'm eating.  I've been using fruit as both a snack and treat but I know that the quantity that I'm eating is WAY over the recommended daily allowance.  That's my plan and while it seems like a lot, I am going to try to implement all of these as smaller changes so that I can make them my healthy routines, again.

Have you made any realizations lately?

Convenience Eating

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In the meeting this week we talked about whether convenience helped or hurt our weight loss efforts.  As the meeting begins the start question asks

Have you ever eaten something just because it was there? 

The scene from where I rode today
Exercise endorphin's > food

Ugh.... duh?  Yes, of course I have!  That's one of the reasons that I needed Weight Watchers to begin with!  Like me I'm sure you've walked into your office and someone had a candy jar on their desk or there were donuts in the break room/kitchen area that became a free for all, right?  Well, as I sat in my meeting on Tuesday I thought to myself that I was glad I didn't have those temptations any longer.  Until this morning when I realized that I do still have those temptations.  Except that I don't work in an office and the only person I can blame for those temptations is me!

I was working through some paperwork and trying to get some stuff ready for my upcoming meetings and couldn't stop snacking.  Granted, it was healthier than a box of donuts but it was still snacking.  I finally decided that I had to get out of the house!  I rode my fat bike for about an hour before getting cleaned up and running some errands.  I was glad to be in the car for most of the afternoon so that I was actually away from food.

Are you eating food just because it's there?  If not, how do you deal with it?

So ... it's been awhile

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When I first started on my weight loss lifestyle makeover I'd read blogs and then suddenly... nothing.  Sometimes the author would pop in and post and it usually said something with an apology and maybe an admission to having stopped some of the healthy routines they had been building and following.  I thought to myself that would never happen with my blog but as I realized today.  It has.  And I'm sorry.

I was so happy before this race...
Not sure where I lost that happiness?
I choose to get it back.  NOW.

Especially considering my last post was all... woe is me and maintenance is hard.  I'm not saying I was wrong, because maintenance is hard but my leader, Karen, told me a long time ago that I had to choose your hard.  She's right.  So, really, I just need to get over it and do the work.  I've been over my goal weight and not happy with my weight for over a month.  I knew it had a lot to do with the fact that I stopped running for awhile.  I told myself that I was taking time off between half marathons to really rest before I started training again.  Well, training had officially started.

In fact, I read the calendar wrong and so I'm a little late to the training game but I'm hoping it'll be fine.  I've gotten in two training runs in the past week and while the first one felt good (I credit the sunny and above 0 degree weather after the Polar Vortex) the other did not feel good (I blame the cloudy/foggy weather).  Having taken so much time off I know that some of these first few runs are going to feel harder than they would have but I know that the time off was beneficial to my legs, my body and my mental health.  So... I've made my choice.  I choose to push through the bad runs and keep going.  I choose to get back to my goal weight.  Those are both things that would make me happy and I choose to be happy.

Make any choices like this lately?