She Shrinks

Woo hoo! This was an awesome week! I got in over 200 minutes of exercise. How you ask? We got a Wii Fit. I’m in LOVE! I love this thing. It makes exercising fun and exciting and offers a wide variety of exercise. And I’m sweating when I’m done, too. I also joined a SparkPeople group on SparkPeople called Wii Fitters Unite! I love it.

Anyway, I lost 1.6 pounds this week. That’s a total of 19.4! I’m so excited. I got my 10% keychain at Weight Watchers because I will reach it next week, but I am not going to be there and neither is my leader. I’m leaving it in the box, though.

Since I recommitted myself to this weight loss journey, there has only been one occasion where I have gained and that was less than a pound and it was the weigh in after New Years. There have only been a couple of times when I haven’t lost weight. I’m really proud of myself. I feel like this time it really is different and that I am going to achieve my goals.

Well, I didn’t gain. I didn’t lose, either. It doesn’t matter. I know why. I had done well all week long, but Friday night, I went to a get together. I did what you should do in that situation, I ate a meal before we left. It’s still hard not to eat. Thankfully, most of the stuff was meat and I’m Catholic and it was Friday night. But there was still Baked Lays and they are very salty. It was hard to resist while everyone else was eating meatballs and cheese and crackers (okay, I had some of those, too) and those meaty, cheesy tortilla wrap things.

This week is going to be better. I already have 60 minutes of exercise in. We got a Wii Fit yesterday and I LOVE, love, love it! It’s addicting. It is really addicting trying to beat your family members best scores. According to Wii Fit, I have lost 1.3 pounds since yesterday at my initial test. It was really close to my weight, too, when it did the test the first time, so…I’m excited.

I lost 0.8 pounds this week. That’s okay, I guess. I’m more excited about the fact that I did well with my goals this week, which were to exercise 3 times for 30 minutes each and to wear my pedometer and keep track of my miles and to track my food better. I did it all. Hopefully, as my leader says, those things will show up on the scale next week.

I had a little accident on Friday. As I was heading out to the gym, I stopped to text a friend. As I was texting him, I noticed that there WAS A FIRE ON MY STOVE! As I ran to put it out, I fell and knocked the wind out of myself, bruised both my knees and did something funky to my left hand. I’ve had it xrayed and it doesn’t appear to be broken, but it is swollen about 3 times it’s normal size. And it hurts like hell. I got the fire out. Just so you know. Thank God I was texting my friend or I might have left the house with my 2 kids sleeping inside it while the fire got going. Shudder.

Oh, and I still went to the gym.

Today, I weighed in and I was really nervous. I hadn’t felt like I had lost much during the week. I had done well with my eating and my tracking, but the past few weeks have been very slow in the actual weight lost category. Imagine my surprise when I got on the scale and found that I had lost 1.6#! That’s for a total of 17#, now! I am so proud of myself and I feel really good about what I am doing. I was before the weigh in this morning, too. My clothes are looser. I see a difference in my face and other people are seeing a difference in me, too.

My goal this week is to get to the gym at least 3 times. I NEED to. I am going to try to go before work because I never seem to have the energy to get there after work. Plus, if I come home first, I never get myself back out the door and, yes, I have to come home first because I have to go to the bathroom in my own bathroom at the end of the work day. Don’t ask.

So, wish me luck getting to the gym at FIVE AM! I can do it. It’s only 3 days, right?

Well, as far as my mini-goals of making it to the gym 3 times this week and drinking more water, I failed. I guess I drank more water, but still nowhere near how much I should have. I didn’t get to the gym at all.

This week, they started remodeling our department at work. That means that each physician/nurse team had to go down to just 2 1/2 or less exam rooms a piece. (How do you have half an exam room, you ask? You have a “swing” room that you all share and use it for quick things like people who come back for xray or lab to get their results.) Still we saw as many patients, or more, even and it made for very difficult, very long, very stressful days. Then, halfway through the week, I realized I hadn’t been taking my antidepressant for 3 days. I had forgotten that when I filled my pill container for the week that I had requested a refill because I wouldn’t have enough for the week. Then when I picked up the refill, I totally blanked that I needed to fill the days that I hadn’t had enough for. Talk about stupid. By Thursday, I was snapping at people at work and that is just not like me. At home, yes, but not at work.

I did not feel like going to the gym at the end of the exhausting days when I got home at close to 7 pm. I didn’t feel like doing anything besides eating dinner and going to bed. I was in bed by 9:30 every night.

Still, I triumphed in things that I didn’t set up as goals this week. Usually, I only journal my food intake Monday through Friday. This past week, I did it every day. That’s huge for me. I am proud of myself. I’m going to do it again this week, too. It felt good to give myself that much when I was feeling pulled from so many different angles this week. I’m going to try to get back to my goals of drinking more water and getting to the gym this week. I know it will help with the stress.

I also triumphed in that I lost another 0.8# and that brought me to a milestone of 15# lost. It’s coming off slow but sure, but I still think I am doing the right thing and this is where I’m going to succeed. I just have to get back to that gym!

I did well with achieving my mini-goals this week. I made it to the gym twice this week. I also got in more vegetables and fruits. We got some good apples at Cub this week. I felt pretty good about being able to achieve them, but my home scale wasn’t showing me the results I wanted. Sometimes it said down 0.2 or 0.4 and then other times it would show me up. I was frustrated. I was contemplating not even going in to WW. I did. I figure that, just like an alcoholic, when I least want to go is when I most need to go. I’m glad that I did. I lost a pound. This teaches me that I should just ignore my home scale and weigh in just at Weight Watchers. It can be self-defeating to keep checking that scale. I would have felt good all week if I hadn’t instead of dreading the meeting.

So, I’m down a total of 14.4#. That’s pretty good, I think. I want to hit that next 5 pound mark next week. I think I can do it.

My mini-goals for this week are to drink more water and get to the gym 3 times this week. I can do that, too.

So, it’s been awhile….Nobody really reads here anyway. It’s mostly for me.

Here’s how I’ve done so far (since 11/8–which is what I consider my new, true starting date):

• 11/15/08: -1.8#
• 11/22/08: -1.0#
• 11/29/08: missed a week
• 12/06/08: maintained (I consider this a success since I missed a meeting.)
• 12/13/08: -2.2#
• 12/20/08: -2.2#
• 12/27/08: -1.4# (huge success over Christmas, I think!)
• 01/03/09: +0.6# (Eh. It was New Years in between these two. Not bad.)
• 01/10/09: -2.0#
• 01/17/09: -2.4#
• 01/24/09: -0.4#
• 01/31/09: -0.6#

That’s a total of -13.4#, in case you can’t do the math.

My Progress Chart

What?! You didn’t think I’d show you my actual weights, did you? Anyway, it’s a slow downward progression, but at least it’s downward, right?

I feel really good. My clothes, even my scrubs, feel looser. I feel like I have had an epiphany when it comes to food. It feels like this is the right thing. And, the best part, it feels doable! For the rest of my life, even!

Our leader this week said that we should focus on mini-goals. I think that’s a good idea. I’ve passed some goals already. I lost first 5, then 10 pounds. I got my 5% star. I’m looking forward to the 15# marker and then my 10% with a key chain as a prize and, of course the 20# mark, too. But, I’ve decided to set some smaller, weekly, attainable goals and I am going to try to change them up every week.

This week, one of my goals is to get to the gym at least 2 days. My husband wants me to go more (because we have to get our 12 times in for insurance reimbursement and this is a short month), and I probably will, but if I set it at 2 and I make it 4, then I’ll feel extra good. My other goal for the week is to get more veggies in. It’s really hard to get good fruits and veggies in the winter. I’m going to go with some suggestions from my WW group and just go with the canned and/or frozen vegetables and do what I can with the fruits.

My other goal is to try to post here at least once a week to give an update on how I am doing. If anything else comes up, I may post more than that, but it’s hard enough for me to post at my regular blog on a regular basis, so this one will be just for bragging or lamenting about my weight loss.

Watching this show tonight here are my observations:

• Jillian terrifies me.
• People who complain about only losing 5 pounds in a week need to be kicked.
• Vicky needs to go.
• Renee and Michelle look so much alike, it’s hard to tell that they are mother and daughter.
• 10#!! OMG! I would freaking throw a party if I lost 10# in a week.
• Heba needs to go, too.
• I wish someone would give me a free Body Bugg with membership.
• Amy looks great. She is beautiful. She has a beautiful voice, too.

Someday, I am going to be as successful as they all are.

Things I did right this week:

• Stocked my drawer at work with things that are healthy so that I can keep myself away from the chocolate hole.
• Worked out. Especially because I didn’t feel well.
• Tried a new class.

I lost a pound! Hurray.

This was in spite of the fact that I felt like crap for most of the week, I had dinner out with my husband which consisted of a juicy hamburger and I had birthday cake with lots of frosting. I guess that making healthy choices most of the time works.