Healthy Girl Now

First let me just start with, I lost 0.4lbs and I’m very proud of it. Why, you  might wonder, it’s not even a whole pound.

Let me explain! I’m proud because although I had great intentions for last week, things didn’t always turn out the way I planned. I felt so tired most days, ate a little more than I wanted to admit, although I tracked it. With the tiredness, I felt like I didn’t do as much physical activity that I should have done for the week. With all of this weighing on my mind as I  went to weigh in last Saturday, I didn’t know what to expect. So the fact that I lost anything felt like a victory. I’m very proud because it helped me feel that this doesn’t have to be an all or nothing situation. This taught me that sometimes I will need to allow myself to rest and sometimes I should go a little outside of the box to feel human and still be successful. It’s not a free pass to do whatever I want all the time but rather not feeling a failure when these times occur.

Last week, when I ate more than I wanted to eat, I was almost afraid to track it even though it doesn’t matter if I wrote it down or acknowledge the food still went into my body. Tracking gives power, knowledge and accountability. It’s like balancing your checkbook, whether you do it or not, sooner or later you will run out of money or maybe realize that you have more money than you thought. Either way, once you know, it gives you power to guide your decisions on what to do.  In both cases, knowing will inform you whether you can do more or less safely.

So I hope that you don’t give up!  I feel pretty good about this week so far! Stay tuned for the results!

Sounds promising right? Well I will state a disclaimer, results may vary from each individual to individual.  Like a true commercial. Seriously though, last week I applied what I know works and was very satisfied with the results.

First thing is that I became of everything I ate and monitored the amount and actually when I was hungry and when I had enough. I also worked hard to use many tools that are available to me. It started with my shiny new Weight Watcher’s tracker, I decided to write down everything -my workouts,the  food I ate and plans and goals. I carried the tracker with me every where and felt great being in control. The next thing I did was used my measuring spoons again and also a very cute measuring cup that I got in  my last Weight Watcher’s kit. I like it because it says 1/4 in the bottom, but it looks like a little bowl to me. I found this helpful, because I filled it up to the brim with the snack that I wanted and recorded it in my tracker. This helped me so much because it didn’t make me feel like I had “a little” food but rather a full bowl of something. It’s funny what visual tricks do for me when it comes to food.

I also decided to switch up my workouts to keep my body guessing, I added some weight training to my routine.

Needless to say, I felt pretty good about my week and felt comfortable going to my Weight Watchers meeting. Sure enough, I had lost weight!

So in a way, I feel like I do know the formula!  I am human and every week is different, so stay tuned for how I complete this week, so far, it’s been pretty good!

Ok… so it’s time for this blog post and I’ve put it off long enough! Why? Because I didn’t get the results I wanted! However, the worst of it is that I did it to myself! It was sooo frustrating after thinking I had my act together, I let the head games rule. So here are the mistakes I made.

1. Got mad on Wednesday that when I weighed myself, that the scale was higher  than I thought it should be.   So what did I do, ate a half of bag of cookies!
2. Then on Thursday I didn’t weigh myself, and didn’t track my food.
3. Snacked and grazed all day, no tracking or working out.

So was I really surprised about gaining weight not really! But  I was hoping for a miracle, that maybe my actions wouldn’t catch up with me.  So I decided to put a plan into  action. Here’s what I’m doing!

1. Bought a new Weight Watchers Tracker and I’m committed to writing down all my food. 
2. Planned over the weekend my workouts and my eating plan.
3. Decided to bring new things into my workout and snacking options.

This planning has made me feel back in control and ready to win this battle with my weight! I feel more determine to pick myself up and not let head games take over this week and I look forward to seeing the results from my work..

Stay tuned!

I’m happy to report that I felt good about the things that I did last week and I did manage to lose 0.2 lbs. I will admit at first I was disappointed because initially I had lost more when I weighed myself early Friday morning. So I figured out that I had let myself snack a little too much  Friday night and that “ate” up my weight loss.

This taught me a lesson. Let me explain, each day I had been careful about what I ate and getting in great workouts. So when Friday came, I was excited that I had lost the amount weight that I was hoping for. But here’s the mistake  I made, I let myself celebrate the wrong way and too early. At dinner that night, I let myself eat more for dinner figuring that my workout would compensate for my splurge.  So this taught me that the foods that we choose can have a negative affect on our positive efforts. My splurge could have been better choice like a piece of fruit or something healthier. I would have preferred to have the lower number on the scale over the food I chose to splurge on.

Now I must address the fact that there are times when the number on the scale doesn’t matter  and the splurge is worth it.  I feel the splurge is worth it when it’s a food that I really enjoy or possibly don’t get that often. However, there are times when the splurge happens and it’s not worth it. This could come from mindless nibbling or a food that you don’t really like but just keep eating.

So to sum it all up… make a decision on what it’s actually worth to you! Achieving a goal or enjoying the treat!  There is no right or wrong, just make sure it’s a decision you won’t regret!

Do you measure your food? I’m sure everyone owns the measuring cups and spoons that can even be found at the dollar store. But ask yourself when is the last time you used them? Well I go through phases of when I use them and when I don’t. So today, I dusted off my box of measuring spoons from Weight Watchers and decided to measure my food to see how much I’m actually eating.

I was HAPPILY surprised! Why, well I did not realize how much an actual half of cup of food holds.  I always figured that it wasn’t that much food. But when I measured my yellow corn and some black eyed peas that my mom made, I was shocked.   I didn’t realize that I could be so satisfied from the amount of food that was on my plate. I assumed that I was eating 1 cup portions but I wasn’t really doing so.  Now don’t get me wrong, I’m sure if I measured an 1/2 cup of ice cream, I would definitely want more, but who knows next time I’m going to try it! So I recommend measuring your food to get to know how much you’re really eating or if you need as much as you think!