Well, today I had planned on writing part 2 of my post from yesterday, but it just never happened. I ended up being very productive at home which was way past due much needed. My housekeeping has definitely gotten pretty lax while I’ve been battling my knee injury.
Since I was feeling pretty good today, I decided it was time to play a little catch up in the cleaning department. What did I do? Well, the dryer vent vacuumed followed by three loads of laundry done, kitchen cleaned, furniture dusted, carpets vacuumed, floors mopped, bathrooms cleaned, litter box changed, magazine stash cleared, bills paid, healthy meals cooked, trash taken out, and a strength training workout done. All of that by 5pm, too. Go me!
The task for today’s 30 Day Blog Challenge is to post a photo of something you ate. I tried a new recipe tonight that I’m planning to post over at the Sisterhood on Sunday, Jan. 15. It’s called Dijon Shrimp and it was super yummy! Here’s of pic of the finished product for now, but be sure to visit the Sisterhood on the 15th for the easy peasy recipe that comes in at only 4 PointsPlus value on Weight Watchers!
Well, that’s it from me for now. I’ll try to get to that part 2 post tomorrow.
Ahhh, here we are. A brand new year, all shiny, clean, and sparkling new. Can’t you just smell the new all over it? You know, kind of like the awesomeness of new car smell. I just love the anticipation of a New Year. Much like that new car smell, there’s just nothing else quite like it.
For me, this new year means making a new start. As I mentioned in my post several days ago about Scale Reality & New Year Goals, I knew I was going to end this year at pretty much the same weight I started it. I was feeling pretty down about myself about it initially, but then my wonderful friend Karen reminded me that there’s no shame in maintaining for a while. After all, at least I’m not ending the year weighing MORE than when I started.
But, enough of the past! This is 2012 and I’m all geared up for a NEW START to go with the new year. Thankfully, my Weight Watchers center was open on New Year’s Day this year. I can’t remember a time in the past where they’ve ever done that, so I was thrilled that not only could I get to my regular Sunday meeting, I could get to one on January 1, too. How awesome is that?! So, I got myself up bright and early this morning and headed over to my Weight Watchers meeting, by way of Starbucks. Sadly, the red holiday cups are gone for another, but at least I was still able to get a Skinny Peppermint Mocha still (4 PP for the Venti).
The topic for this week’s meeting was all about “believe” which goes hand-in-hand with their new ad campaign. Have you see any of the new commercials? If you were watching ABC’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve last night, you probably spotted one of them. If you looked closely, you might’ve spotted the awesome @SuziStorm who blogs over at Ok, Just One More Beer. She’s lost 91 pounds on Weight Watchers and looks amazeballs!! If you want to see even more Weight Watchers videos, check our their YouTube channel!
Back to the meeting, we talked a lot about what things have caused us to stumble on our weight loss journey in the past. We then brain-stormed about tools that we have available as Weight Watchers members that will help us overcome those old issues. Using those tools will help us be successful and we can believe and have faith that we can reach our goals. We even ended the meeting with an awesome quote seen in the photo which also includes my incredible leader, Jacki (can you believe she was once 100 pounds heavier?!!). If you can’t read the quote, just click on the photo for a large version which should be easier to read.
As if the quote wasn’t inspiring enough on it’s own, I happened to glance to my left and see this poster hanging on the wall next to me. It’s the cumulative total of all the weight loss at our center during 2011. Amazing!! Hopefully we can smash that total in 2012!
After I left the meeting, I headed over to the supermarket and stocked up on lots of healthy foods, including lots of fresh fruit & veggies. When I got it home, I decided Jan. 1 would be a great day to get my kitchen all organized again as I was putting the food away. I feel so ready to go with my healthy eating in 2012! There’s just nothing quite like being organized to make sticking with a plan so much more manageable.
Once I had that done, I prepared myself a nice healthy lunch (sorry, no pic) and then settled in for an afternoon of relaxation which included a bit of stitching time. My January 1 new stitching start for this year (yes, I do it one every year) was Royal Holiday from one of my favorite designers, Mirabilia. I don’t have enough done yet to really post a photo, so I’ll do that in a few days after I have a bit more done.
I had planned on including my goals for the next two months in this post, but I think it’s long enough already. I’ll save my goals for tomorrow’s post. I’ll also be writing about an exciting year-long project I’ll be taking part in over at the Sisterhood, too. I can’t wait to tell you all more about that!
I do have one last thing to share about before I go for today. I’ve decided to take part in the 30 Day Blog Challenge hosted by Jamee over at A New Kind of Normal. Since I’m really striving to blog on a daily basis again after merging my blogs, I thought this would be a great way to ensure it actually happens. It will also give new readers to my blog (hello weight loss resolutioners ) a chance to learn a little bit more about me. The challenge for today is to post a photo of yourself and description how your day went. Since I’ve already posted about how my day went, I’ll just leave you with a photo of me taken recently with my sweet kitty, Brandi.
Well, I did it. I headed to a Weight Watchers meeting last night after work. The image above pretty much sums up the reaction the scale had when I stepped on it. My holiday over indulgences were screaming loud and clear. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I put on NINE pounds over the past two weeks of the holiday. How is that even possible?!!
Well, I suppose it’s technically possible since that would work out to “only” taking in an extra 2250 calories above and beyond my BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) per day. Given all of the high-calorie holiday fare out there, one could easily rake up a LOT of extra calories very quickly. While I do admit to indulging, I didn’t indulge THAT much and I definitely didn’t indulge that much every day for two full weeks, that’s for sure!
So, why did the scale jump so much then? There were a few things other than calorie consumption that contributed to the big jump at the scale.
I normally attend a Sunday morning meeting, but attended an evening meeting this week since the center was closed on Sunday for Christmas. I generally weigh 2-3 pounds heavier in the evening than I do in the morning due to foods and fluids consumed during the day.
I normally weigh in wearing a pair of running capris and a t-shirt. Since I went to the meeting straight from my office, I had on a pair of white jeans and a lightweight sweater tunic because I’d forgotten when I dressed yesterday morning that I would be weighing in last night. That clothing difference was probably also good for another couple of pounds of the gain.
I was eating a lot more sodium-laden foods and drinking less water than I normally do over the holidays. That’s a double whammy on the scale, for sure!
All things considered, I figure I probably actually put on about 4-5 pounds. While that’s still not that great, at least it’s better than NINE! Hopefully I’ll see a nice loss on Sunday after a few days back on my regular eating routine coupled with getting back to my morning meeting & usual weigh in attire.
I loved the topic we had at the meeting this week. It was all about “Believe and Achieve!” Jacki, my leader, pointed out that Spring is just a mere 12 weeks from now. She had us all take a couple of minutes to think about where we’d like to be when Spring arrives and write out those goals. She encouraged us to not think about the whole year of 2012 but to focus on more short-term goals. In fact, she gave each of us a 3-Month Success Plan sheet to fill out with goals for just the next 12 weeks. It was really helpful! Here were some of the items included:
What are some things you were doing the last time you felt successful at weight loss?
Paint a picture of yourself in three (3) months:
I will be wearing _____________________.
I will be able to ______________________.
I will weigh between ________ and _______.
I will feel __________________________.
Based on past success, I commit to use these tools in my weight loss journey:
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
I love having this action plan to help me get my new year off to a great start! I prefer having firm goals to work toward rather than all of the proverbial New Years’ Resolutions that so many people set. I actually gave up on making resolutions several years ago because I realized that I rarely kept them because they weren’t specific enough and they had such a large scope that they become overwhelming. Having huge yet nebulous resolutions never seemed to serve me well. These days, I prefer setting smaller more short-term goals that are S.M.A.R.T.
S pecific
M easurable
A ttainable
R elevant
T imely
By setting S.M.A.R.T. goals, I have created an environment where I can be successful by simply following my plan. I no longer have to feel shame and/or guilt about not meeting a bunch of vague resolutions. If I don’t meet my goals, I just know I need to work my plan better the next time.
Speaking of which, I didn’t do a very good job of setting goals in 2011 and it really shows now that the year is coming to a close. My weight just kind of went up and down the same 10-15 pounds throughout the course of the year because I didn’t have a plan. As a result, I’m finishing the year weighing basically what I did at the beginning of the year. I definitely plan (pardon the pun) to do a much better job of setting and managing my goals in 2012!
If you follow me on Twitter, one of the things you probably know I believe in is taking small steps. Being part of the Daily Challenge from the folks at Me You Health for the past year has been a great help in that area! Every day they give one small task that we can all do to help create a healthier life. It’s really helped reinforce the me the importance of focusing on taking small steps rather than looking at the big picture and getting overwhelmed.
Along the same thought line I have, they are encouraging people to skip the resolutions this year and join their anti-resolution campaign. They are asking people to pledge to take small actions toward better health and well-being instead making resolutions. I LOVE this concept! They’ve even put together an app on the anti-resolution website to help people selection a small action that will help people meet their larger goals. I took the pledge using the app and chose the small action of eating at least one green vegetable every day. I can do that!
You can also check out this awesome video featuring some of the Me You Health staff sharing some of their own small steps (Hi Alicia & Christine!). If you’re on Twitter and interested in health & fitness, you should follow them both. Just sayin’ … Oh, and you should follow @MeYouHealth, too!
So, what are your plans for 2012? Will you be making resolutions, or like me and the good folks at Me You Health, will be you setting more realistic small actions to help you reach your health and fitness goals? Leave me a comment below to share your plans for 2012!
In closing, I’ll leave you with this quote from Albert Einstein:
“I must be willing to give up what I am in order to become what I will be.”
The last time I posted, I said I was shocked that it has been a month since my previous post. Well, here I am again in the exact same position. I’ve been traveling for work, my uncle passed away suddenly, and now I’m dealing with a major knee injury. Life just got hard for a while, but I’m muddling through it. It’s time to suck it and up, dust off the blog, and get back to posting again.
I won’t sugar-coat things by pretending I stuck with my eating plan or exercise because I didn’t. I pretty much started eating crap food, quit working out, became pretty reclusive, and basically gave up. In the matter of just a few weeks, I regained all the weight I’d lost during the fall which only added to blues I was already feeling.
The good news? Well, after posting about my struggles over at the Sisterhood, I managed to pull myself up by the proverbial bootstraps. I decided I just needed a bit mental reset. I spoke with my Weight Watchers leader and she totally “got” it, thankfully. She reset my weight history in the computer, gave me a new weight record booklet, and encouraged me to stay for the Getting Started session after the meeting. It was just the restart I needed. Around this same time, Colleen over at Bee Fit started a #Back2Basics push on her blog and via Twitter. I signed up because I knew that would give me some added motivation to stick with staying on track. In the three weeks since I reset at Weight Watchers, I’m happy to report that I’ve lost 8.4 pounds. I still have a bit more to go to get back to where I was earlier in the fall, but I know I’ll get there soon.
As for the knee injury I mentioned. It depends upon which doctor one believes as to what’s wrong with it. A doctor I saw in D.C. while I was on business travel said that it was severe degenerative joint disease and that the top of my patella (knee cap) had snapped off. She said I was likely looking at needing a total knee replacement. When I got back home and saw my regular GP, he said he didn’t think it was as severe as the D.C. doctor said and he doesn’t think the patella is fractured. He thinks I’ve “just” torn the ligament(s) in my knee. All I know is that I have severe pain walking and it’s frequently swollen pretty badly. I have an appointment with an orthopedist tomorrow, so I hope to know more after that.
I just want to close by saying thanks to all of you who have still been checking in on my blog. I’ve been amazed at the daily traffic I’ve been getting despite the lack of posts. I also really appreciate those of you who have taken the time to drop me an email to check in on me. I truly appreciate it more than you know!!
Until next time, which I promise won’t be another month …
On Saturday, I had the pleasure of participating on team Let’s Rock It Bloggers for the Napa River Rock & Stroll 6k (3.72 miles) race. We were a virtual team of bloggers (pulled together by Jules over at Big Girl Bombshell) spread out across the country who all came together to raise money for the Cope Family Center which empowers families to create happy, healthy lives for their children through child abuse prevention, parent education and self-sufficiency services. Even though the race took place on Saturday, you can still make a donation to help this very worth-while cause!
The actual race was scheduled at 8:30am up in Napa. Since I also live in California, I decided I would do my walk at the same time which definitely made me feel more a part of the event even though I was doing it virtually. I woke up around 7:00am and made a nice breakfast. It was definitely more PointsPlus (PP) on Weight Watchers than I typically have for breakfast (usually 5-6 PP total), but since I knew I was about to head out for nearly a 4 mile walk, I knew I’d be fine as I would be earning several Activity Points for my walk. More importantly though, my breakfast was the perfect combination of carbs and protein to get me though my walk! Breakfast consisted of some coffee (1 PP for the milk) and a bowl of Coach’s Oats (3 PP) mixed with half of banana sliced (0 PP) and a packet of Justin’s Honey Almond Butter (5 PP).
After finishing my breakfast, I geared up and was ready to head out for my walk. I wore my SPIbelt so I could carry my phone and send tweets of encouragement to the rest of the team as they were out walking/running, too. It made the walk go so much faster reading those tweets while I was out there!
The morning was actually pretty much my favorite conditions for getting out for a long walk. The temperature stayed around to the low- to mid-60′s for the entire walk. The morning cloud cover was still overhead, so I didn’t have the sun beating down on me either. It was great!
I walked through the neighborhood next to my apartment complex. The worst part was the repetition factor since I did the same loop three times. At least by the time I got around to the third loop, the neighborhood dogs stopped barking at me. LOL
I was actually feel really good through about the first 2.5 miles. The last mile or so got a bit rougher though. I’ve been battling a sinus/throat infection all week and have been on antibiotics. My head was starting to stop up again and I just couldn’t get a good rhythm going with my breathing. I pushed through it made it to the end. I finished in 71 minutes which gave me a pace of just over 19 minutes per mile. It’s not as fast as I would’ve like, but given the circumstances, I’m pleased overall.
After I got back home, I entered my time for my walk in eTools on the Weight Watchers site. Just as I suspected, I had nothing to worry about with having the PointsPlus-heavy breakfast. I earned 9 Activity Points for my walk which was the exact same number of PointsPlus value I used for my breakfast, so it worked out perfectly.
Did you have a race this weekend? Leave me a comment with your race report so I can stop by to read it and cheer you on, too.
That’s it for this week. If you have some favorite posts and/or recipes from the past week, please share them in the comments. Or, even better, start your own Saturday Rewind on your own blog and leave me a link to your post so I can check it out!
I'm a Tennessee girl who now lives in southern California. I drink copious amounts of coffee and love to stitch, read, and spend time with friends. I'm a total geek and love all things technology & gadgetry including my iPhone, iPad, Mac, Kindle, etc. I'm also a member of Weight Watchers on a journey to better health.
Sadly, the red holiday cups are gone for another, but at least I was still able to get a Skinny Peppermint Mocha still (4 PP for the Venti).
I’ll save my goals for tomorrow’s post. I’ll also be writing about an exciting year-long project I’ll be taking part in over at the Sisterhood, too. I can’t wait to tell you all more about that!
It will also give new readers to my blog (hello weight loss resolutioners 
pounds over the past two weeks of the holiday. How is that even possible?!!
