Surround yourself with supportive people!

Sorry guys, I know I was supposed to update you this week but I ended up getting the flu, a cold and my period all on one day.  Christmas Day night.  I had no clue I was going to get sick!

It was and still is horrible, but at least the flu part is gone...

Anyway - to the good stuff!!!

The week prior I was really really down.  I left the Weight Watcher meeting feeling super depressed and feeling like I have let everyone down. Including myself.  I was so negative in the meeting and I felt horrible about doing that.  I've never been like that in meetings, maybe in my head, but never in meetings.  I try to be super supportive of everyone.  I know people were thinking what the hell happened to her.  Wow she must be struggling!

I was.

Badly.

I know it's not a surprise to you either.

What may be a surprise is that last week was fantastic.  I did what I said I was going to do.  I was going to track everything that went in my mouth, and I did!  The first few days I was already negative in my points, but that wasn't my goal - my goal was that I didn't really care what I was eating as long as I was tracking it.  In the end, it affected what I was actually eating.  By day 3 or 4 I started trying to stay closer to my points.  I was still exercising, like I normally do - but started pushing myself more and more on trying to eat within my points as much as possible.

Also... I had two little angels with me the whole week.  Both from my Weight Watchers meeting.  Before I left that meeting last week - we made a pact.  One pact was to tell each other what we weighed every morning.  The other pact was that we (all three of us) would talk on a regular basis and check in with how we were doing.  That ended up saving me really!  We started out with just chatting, then it went to sharing our daily trackers and then it went to challenges.

Seriously that's the best support anyone could ever get!

I lost 6 lbs... over Christmas.  Because I tracked (and have awesome friends)!

I cannot tell you how important it is to surround yourself with those people that want you to succeed and want to be part of that with you.  I have made so many friends in my Weight Watcher group, more than I ever have before.  These people are like family to me.  It is so important for me to attend my meetings for so many reasons, but to keep these relationships up is one of the most important things to me.

Since we're already half way through the week now, I may as well tell you that I'm doing fine this week.  I'm still tracking everything that's going into my mouth... but you'll have to wait until next week to hear more - because this has not been without challenges!

I can't wait until I'm Healthfully Ever After!

Letting You Down

I apologize for not posting last week.  I didn't weigh in, I was not a good girl and I was away at training for two days.  Then getting myself all ready for Christmas.

I am really struggling here.  I know if you've read my blog over the last 6 months I've been really up and down.  Had some super highs and super lows.  I am starting to make myself worry... I feel very out of control with my food and it's showing on the scale.

I've said this over and over and over - exercise is not my problem.  I have continued to exercise.  Sure I've had some weeks where I haven't exercised as much as others.  But it is a priority of mine.  My food though is way out of check.

I used to journal all the time.
I used to put everything I put in my mouth in my journal.
If I didn't know the points, I made a number up... usually on the "higher side."

NOW

Now, I'm not journaling as much.
Now I'm making excuses that I don't know how many points something is - so I don't write it down.
Now I'm eating everything in site (I'm still thinking, in my brain, that I shouldn't eat something).
Now I've gained over 10 lbs back.
Now, I'm scared.

I'm giving myself a little break because it's the holidays but really all I'm doing is making it worse and making myself feel worse.  I must get myself back in control.  I must not let myself feel like I've screwed up my entire day because I ate 6 chocolate covered oreos (OMG - what????).  So for this week, I'm going to track everything.  I am not going to care so much about points per say but just tracking everything that goes in my mouth.

I hope you're not doing as bad as I am right now.  I hope that in two weeks when I write my blog (I won't be updating next week - most likely) that I have a much better story to tell.  I feel like I'm letting everyone down.  I know you'll all say I'm not and we've all been there.  But DAMN - I still feel it... but I know I'll get back on track.  I have to!!!

I still can't wait until I'm Healthfully Ever After!

Post Thanksgiving / Vacation

So this year my husband and I went down to Florida to see his son for Thanksgiving.  It's his first year in college and instead of flying him back here, we decided to go down to see him.  We hadn't seen the campus yet and I wanted to see where he lived and get a feel for how things were out there.

So we set off Tuesday night and headed to my parents house.  My mom took us to the airport at 4:15 A.M.  (UGH I hate mornings). First thing I did was eat quiche and a caribou coffee to start off my day.  Probably not the best choice, but had that vacation mind set in.  We flew through Atlanta (had a 3 hour lay-over) and had lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings.  Because I had that breakfast, I ordered a salad with the dressing on the side for lunch.  Probably wasn't the best salad to choose but at least I was eating veggies and I used very little dressing.  That made me feel decent about my choice at least.  Then I got a sweet/blended coffee - not such a good girl.  When we got to Florida we had to pick up our rental car and drive 2 1/2 hours to get our son.  (p.s. I hate driving in cars).  Once we got to his dorm, he showed us his room (typical college dorm room - for boys) and we headed off.  We had another 2 1/2 hour drive ahead of us.  We stopped for pizza along the way - I ate a 1/2 lrg pizza.  Not feeling the best, but I was HUNGRY (not ideal).

We finally got to our destination at 9 pm EST.  We had no groceries, water, pop, etc.

The next morning we got up, got ready and went grocery shopping (we selected mainly healthy items - YAY) and then headed to a Thanksgiving buffet.  It was AWESOME.  I didn't do horrible there, but I could have done better of course.  I only chose one dessert though, that was a huge accomplishment.  When we got back I was tired, I wanted a nap... but I could hear that ocean calling me.  We were literally 100 steps off the ocean.  So while football was calling the boys, I decided I'd take a walk on the beach by myself.  It was beautiful (chilly, but beautiful).  When I left for the beach I had about 2500 steps on my fitbit.  When I got back I had over 14,000 steps.  I had just walked over 5 miles.  CRAZY.  I was amazed, it didn't feel like it.

I walked into the beach house just as football was wrapping up (my Packers lost - booooo, glad I didn't watch the game) and my husband said "I'd like to go for a walk on the beach."  I was like "SHIIIIIT I'm sore" but I didn't say that... we went to the beach for a walk.  When we were done for the day I had 23,xxx steps... which means I walked yet another 5+ miles on the beach with them.  I felt amazing (sore, but amazing).  What that day did for me was amazeballs... the rest of the 3 days there I got up each morning and walked the beach -- between 4 and 5 miles each day.  I felt so good about that.

I didn't always eat the best for the vacation, but I think I would have done way worse if I didn't get those walks in.  All but that 1 afternoon, I walked alone.  I did it right away in the morning so I didn't have any excuse not to.  I did it before we even would have started our day.  I felt GREAT!

We headed back to my step son's campus early Sunday morning (after I got a 3.1 mile walk in) to tour his campus and see what it's like.  It's beautiful.  Simply beautiful.  Very uniform (not a lot of differing character in the buildings) - each building is the same brick... but the landscaping that Florida can have at this time of year is so beautiful.  Especially compared to Minnesota (which is where I'm from).  We walked about 5+ miles on his campus that day.  After the tour we took him to a movie and then left him (tears... tears... tears... I miss him so much already) and drove to the WORST HOTEL EVER off the Riverwalk in Jacksonville FL.  Do not stay at that Wyndham - it's freakin gross!!!

Monday was a day of travel back to MN where we landed and it immediately started snowing (welcome home!!).  When we were in Florida, I wore my light winter jacket every day except the last day when it got to mid - upper 60's.  Every other day was 35-55 degrees (eek, but still better than the 20-30 here in MN).  As we were leaving we saw the forecast for Florida for the week - 70-80's (NICE!) and here in MN it will be in the single digits :(.

Calgon, take me back to Florida!!!

So anyway I stepped on the scale Tuesday morning and I had lost 1 lb (on vacation).  I tried losing a little more since we've gotten back... and the results were - not good.  Got my friggin period.  I gained 3.2 this week (overall gain of 4.8 the last two weeks).  I honestly think it's all period weight so I'm actually quite pleased with my past week.  I had 47 activity points for the week (the highest I've ever gotten) - ain't nuttin' wrong with that.  Now, like you, I need to maintain my weight through Christmas/New Years (after I lose what I've gained in the last two weeks (hee hee).  I'll be doing that by keeping up my exercising through the holidays - I will make time for it.  My goal is to get in 5 days minimum of some sort of exercise between 40-60 minutes each of those days.

What are you going to do to combat the holiday foods?

Well whatever it is, I wish you luck and as always - remember...

I can't wait until I'm Healthfully Ever After.