Woohoo! I lost four pounds this week, and am two pounds ahead of schedule. I made a line chart in Excel to track my weight (even though the WW site does it for me, I like mine better) and track my actual weight vs. my weekly goal weight, which is a loss of 2 lbs per week.
I am terrible about tracking my food; I do it in my head, just like my bank balance. That usually works out OK, but sometimes I lose track of how much money I have and things get…erm…interesting; the same thing happens with my food points. I am making it a goal to track/journal all of my food this week.
On the new system, not only do you get your allotted points for the day (depending on your current weight) but you also get an extra 49 points per week (or 7 extra points per day) to use at your discretion (regards of your current weight). You are encouraged to use them all each week – hooray! I intend to fully comply with that. I use most of them on Tuesdays because it’s Chicken Enchilada Day! This way I get what I feel like I “need” to keep myself from feeling deprived and depressed, and in the long run it will keep me from quitting. I can’t help it right now that I need an “off” day; it’s something I will work on in the future, but it will overwhelm me right now. As I learn better habits and my desire for all things cheesy and sour-creamy finally start ebbing away, then I will have a better chance at success for ridding myself of these nothing-is-off-limits-you-deserve-a-break kind of “off” days. One of the signs I am going to print out and hang in prominent display is: Do not reward yourself with food. You are not a dog. I don’t see chicken enchilada Tuesdays as a reward, just a…ah…coping mechanism. For now. Shut up.
I am also going to purchase the WW’s version of the Body Bug – it’s called the ActiveLink™. I won’t be getting it for another week or so (damn budget, stupid gas for car), but I’m very excited about it. Basically, it’s a USB-type thingy that you clip to yourself somewhere (like a bra strap or waistband) and it monitors and records your activity every day. You take it off at the end of the day and dump the information into the WW eTools program. It tells you how active you were and how many WW activity points you earned, which you can then trade for food points if you want to. You wear it for the first eight days and just do what you normally do – don’t start your exercise program just yet. This gives the program a base-line; then it will suggest a 12-week program to increase your activity. This way, if you are an absolute slug at the bottom of the activity scale (like me), you don’t go joining the advanced Zumba class at the local gym and have a massive cardiac event 30 seconds into the work out. It will step you up gradually and give you ideas for increasing your activity. Our WW leader does not use her activity points for food; she uses hers for motivation. She knows how many she wants to get in a day, and if she sees that she isn’t going to make it, she gets motivated to get moving. I need that.
So, that’s where I’m at right now. So far, so good. One week down, many more to go, but I’m just trying to take it a day at a time right now. My first goal is my 5% mark – 17 pounds lost by New Year’s Day. Only 13 more pounds to go and seven weeks to get there. I can do it.
I can do it!
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