#noexcuses Week 2 Weigh In

Week 2 is in the books and I am happy to report that it was another successful week. I actually think I am loving weighing in on Saturdays because I think it is helping to keep me on track (for now at least). Of course I might just be staying on track more easily right now because I'm feeling very focused and motivated. I know this level of focus won't continue for the entire 16 weeks so I'm going to do as much as I can now to ride this train as long as possible.

Week 2 was another week of not even using all my weeklies and earning over 100 FitPoints (99 of them could have been swapped for food). I ended the week with 9 weeklies remaining. I had 4 blue dot days, but as I talked about before, blue dots are one part of the WW program that I don't completely agree with. I've previously had 5/7 blue dot days as part of my goals for the week, but I'm not focused on that this time around. This time I am really just trying to stay on track with my allotted points. I'm also double tracking again in MFP so I can see where I am in terms of calories each day.

My average calorie intake this past week was 1,431 calories (1,022 net calories). I had days like the pic above where I even had a small DQ cone after my infusion and ate too many goldfish crackers, but still ended my day 1,461 calories (but 33 points). Then, on Friday I ended up eating the least amount of calories I  had eaten all week! Who am I!?!? 

I am happy to report all of that hard work turned into another good loss on the scale. Unfortunately I'm still not back down to my lowest weight, but I'm getting close. I will take 7.6 pounds in 2 weeks and use that to drive my motivation to keep going strong. I know that the weight loss is going to get slower now but that's OK. I really only have 6.8 pounds left to get to my first goal (a new low) and I am OK if it takes until the 8 week mark to get there. 

My mindset is back to where it was last April when I lost 12.6 pounds in 4 weigh in's. I am currently finding this relatively easy again. This week I not only had that ice cream cone, but I had popcorn for lunch one day as well. I had a moment on Thursday when I wanted to eat for no reason. It took a ton of self talk and a moment of weakness with some goldfish crackers; but I reigned it in and ended that day still eating under 1500 calories. 

Friday's food amounted to just under 1200 calories!

The best part is I really haven't been all that hungry. Thursdays moment of weakness had nothing to do with being hungry which is why I was able to talk myself into stopping. I basically told myself that if there was something in particular I really wanted to eat then I should just eat that, track it and move on. But I didn't want anything in particular. I just wanted to eat to eat, which is really just stupid and not necessary. I ate those goldfish (even weighed them out), counted them and told myself that I ate for no reason so it was time to be done. Then, I had my after dinner snack already tracked in my tracker so I was going to still eat it. It wouldn't have been a big deal if I did. I still would have been under 1800 calories on the day, but there was NO reason to eat it. I wasn't hungry so I told myself to just be done eating for the day. 

As I sit here and write this I'm once again contemplating whether I'm going to eat an after dinner snack or not. I've eaten 20/23 points and about 1200 calories so I certainly can eat if I want/need to, but I'm not currently hungry so I may just decide to be done for the day. I've been trying to stop eating by around 7:30 each night and since it's already 7 I'm thinking I may just be done for the day. I know one thing is for sure; it would make a very strong start to week 3! 

SaturWEIGH

In all the times that I've been tracking my weight on a weekly basis; I don't think I ever had Saturday as my official weigh in day. I do Monday often; have done Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, but never Saturday (I don't think).

Since I had to be weighed in at LL last Saturday I decided this time around I would have Saturdays be my official weigh in day. Of course the number on my scale last Saturday morning was different than the one at LL since that was later in the day and I was wearing clothes 😂I will be using that weight to track my weekly weigh in's.

Having said all that, I actually didn't get started this past week until Monday so I'm even more stoked about this week's weigh in.

I did not track on Saturday or Sunday last week, but after tracking Monday through Friday I actually had 44 weekly points remaining! I had rolled over so many daily points throughout the week (you can rollover up to 4 per day if you don't use them) that even though I used some on Thursday and Friday, I still ended the week with 2 more than I started with! Between Monday and Friday I also earned 92 FitPoints of which 71 could have been swapped for food.

All in all I would say that was a pretty successful start to this challenge. 6 days down. 107 to go. Just need to stay focused. Every week won't be like this past week and that will be OK. Last week I worked out every planned day (Mon, Wed, Fri at LL and walking on Tues and Thurs). I drank a gallon of water every day and most days I was done with that gallon before 8 PM. I tracked all my food and obviously stayed within my points.

Week 2 started today and I am off to a great start. I used some of my weekly points today but it's funny because I still only ate 1479 calories. I finished my gallon of water a little while ago, I tracked everything I ate today (and stopped eating around 7 tonight), and enjoyed my rest day to its' fullest.

On tap for week 2: 1) LL workouts Mon, Wed, Fri. Treadmill or outdoor run/walks Sun, Tues, Thurs. 2) Gallon of water everyday. 3) Track my food every day. 4) Stay within allotted points (dailies, weeklies and FitPoints).

Here's to another successful week!

Day 3/113

I am counting Monday as day 1 even though my official weigh in was Saturday. I did not start until Monday and fully enjoyed my weekend. But, throughout this challenge Saturday will be my official weigh in day, so this week's weigh in won't actually be a full week of being on track. And when I say official I just mean how I will be marking my weekly loss throughout the challenge.

Also, I will be using the weight that I was on my home scale Saturday morning to calculate my weekly loss rather than the LL scale. The only time LL will weigh me in again is at the 8, 12 and 16 week marks.

Ok. So we're at day 3. Sometimes days 1-3 are really easy and sometimes not so much. I am happy to say that this time these 3 days have felt incredibly easy. I actually wasn't going to do a blog post today because I almost feel silly be SO excited about 3 good days. I mean, I still have 110 days to go just in this challenge. I was also slightly nervous that if I wrote a blog post about how awesome I'm doing then tomorrow I would have a challenging day. But, I decided that I needed to write this blog post today for my future self.

I've talked before about how I often go back and read through my old blog posts. I've been blogging for almost 7 years now and it has never taken off to be anything more than an outlet for me and I'm 100% OK with that. I love this outlet and I love the ability to go back and read through my struggles and successes.

So here's what I want to tell my future self.....THIS IS NOT THAT HARD!!!!! You really need to
stop making it so hard. What I did this week was plan a breakfast for all week, lunch for all week and 6 different dinners. I made these meals hearty enough that I haven't been eating at all between them and I've barely even gotten hungry. I plan a snack or dessert for after dinner, but I've been done eating by 7:30 or 8 each night and am not hungry between then and bed.

Breakfast has been the absolute weirdest concoction, but I have been on a kick with it for a while actually. It's 3 hard boiled eggs, 1 tbsp chipotle mayo, 2 chicken & maple breakfast sausage and a banana. It amounts to 5 points/507 calories. This keeps me full for a few hours and since I don't often eat breakfast until 9:30 or later I can have a late lunch so I don't get too hungry before dinner.

Lunch has been Dietz & Watson buffalo chicken breast, 1 oz of Trader Joe's Lite shredded mozzarella, 1 tbsp Hellman's Lite Mayo wrapped in a Mission Carb Balance tortilla. I pair that with quinoa & black beans, baby carrots, sugar snap peas and an apple. This amounts to 7 points and 490 calories.

Dinner Monday was chicken parmesan with Banza pasta (which is pasta made from chickpeas). This dinner was 5 points/435 calories. I didn't care for the chickpea pasta so I only ended up eating half of my serving.

My after dinner snack/dessert was an Enlightened bar, which I have talked about before on this blog. These are seriously so good and I have come to the conclusion that they actually really help my weight loss efforts. I eat one of these between 7 and 8 and I am not hungry at all for the rest of the night. There are many times when I am starving right after dinner and it drives me crazy. That hasn't happened at all this week.

I ended Monday at 19/23 points and 1467 calories.

Tuesday was just as successful. Breakfast and lunch were the same. I was a little more hungry in the afternoon so I also had a banana between lunch and dinner. Dinner was pot roast and broccoli. I had read a bunch about nutritional yeast so I decided to try it. I sprinkled some on my broccoli. I don't have much of an opinion on it. It wasn't a strong flavor at all. I'm going to try the nutritional yeast in other ways before I decide whether I think it's worth it or not. Dinner was 7 points/300 calories. Tuesday ended with 22/23 points and 1497 calories.

On to today. Sometimes I fall apart on day 3. I was a little worried that would happen today for no reason, but it didn't. I actually felt the least hungry today, but I did have to fight with myself not to eat for no reason. Breakfast and lunch were the same. Wednesdays I don't eat breakfast until almost 11 so I wasn't eating lunch until around 2 today. I had no problem getting through the day without snacking in between those meals. Dinner was grilled chicken marinated in Olive Garden Italian dressing with a boatload of green beans. This dinner was 3 points/315 calories.

Tonight I decided to have slightly more of a snack after dinner. I had apple slices with 2 tbsp of PB2 powder. This snack was only 1 point/125 calories. I then, of course, ended my day with an Enlightened bar.  Final count today was 19/23 points and 1517 calories.

With WW Freestyle you can "rollover" points you don't use in a day. You can only rollover up to 4 points a day. Monday I rolled over 4, Tuesday I rolled over 1 and today I will rollover 4 again. In just 3 days I have added 9 points to my 42 weeklies that I get. I have also earned 43 FitPoints since Monday.

I am meeting my mom for lunch tomorrow, but I have already planned out my day so I'm not concerned about it at all. I actually tracked all my food for the week (well, except for Sunday) on Sunday! I am already thinking/planning out my food for next week. There is no reason why I can't keep on this streak for 16 weeks (and beyond). I don't need to be this "perfect" all the time either, but there's NO reason why I can't eat like this most of the time so that I can still fit in those indulgences that I like every once in a while. I did that last April with no problem and dropped 15 pounds that month. I don't need to lose weight at that rate all the time, but that just proves that this doesn't have to be as hard as I make it. I like that I have this outlet to remind myself of this because I am SURE that I will hit hard times again when I think this is the hardest thing ever. It's not. Remember that!

#NOEXCUSES Goals

16 weeks; 4 months; 113 days.....a LONG time

16 weeks is a long time. But 16 weeks will also come and go before we know it. Last year I talked about everything I accomplished in the 8 week challenge when I wrote this blog post. A couple of things that stand out the most to me were the fact that for 8 weeks I did not have one drop of alcohol, I was 100% "on program" for all but one weekend through that entire time, and I lost weight 7 out of the 8 weeks of the challenge.

In all of these years of my weight loss journey I don't think I have ever been focused for 16 weeks in a row. Inevitably I give myself a day/weekend/week to not track what I'm eating (which always means eating and drinking too much). That leads me to my first goal for this 16 week challenge:

Goal/Plan #1 = Track everything I eat no matter what!
Easy enough, right? I am going to continue to do WW while I do this 16 week challenge. The other part of this goal is the real challenge and that is to stay within my allotted points for the entire 16 weeks. I will go back to wearing my Garmin so that I can earn FitPoints, but I am going to try very hard to not eat my FitPoints most weeks. It's all a mental game for me. I thought about continuing to not wear my Garmin and if I go into negative points in a week know that it doesn't really matter because even if I didn't track them I still did earn the FitPoints. BUT, I think seeing me go into negative points would have a horrible effect on my psyche and I can't risk that. I also think it would cause me to try to be "perfect" and that's not realistic either. No one is perfect.

Goal/Plan #2 = Workout at LL 3 days/week and Run 2-3 days/week. 
Pretty self explanatory here. I was going to up my workouts at LL to 4 days per week, but I know I'm not going to maintain that. I've been working out at LL pretty consistently 3 days per week for a year now. I'd like to get back to more consistent running and I don't want to go crazy and push my body to 2 a days or anything.

Goal/Plan #3 = NO alcohol for the ENTIRE 16 weeks!
This is a BIG one. It is no secret that I enjoy my wine. Last year I gave up wine for the 8 week challenge and it actually wasn't even that difficult. I told myself at the start of the 8 weeks that it just wasn't an option for 8 weeks so it made it easier to avoid. Same thing this time; just for twice as long. 😆 Here's the thing; I have learned over the years that I can lose weight while still drinking, but that it's so much easier when I am not drinking. I lost all my weight last year between January and May. I also avoided alcohol from Jan 15th-Mar 9th during that time and then gave it up again starting April 2nd. It's no wonder that in those 4 months I dropped 29 pounds. I let alcohol back into the mix in May and from then until now I didn't lose anything else (and gained back several). If I'm serious about getting closer to a healthy weight, I need to give up alcohol at least for the time being.

Outcome Goal "A" = 175 on the scale
Outcome Goal "B" = 180 on the scale
You know I don't usually like to put a number goal on these things, but I'm going to do it. I put a number on my goal last year between April and our Disney trip at the end of May and I absolutely crushed that goal. The above goals are lofty goals, but they are not unrealistic. Neither of those goals require even averaging a 2lb/wk loss. I think trying to average under a 2lb/wk loss is pretty realistic. I am also confident that if I stick to the 3 goals above I will be able to average that kind of loss without a problem.

I would love to put a body fat % goal on myself as well, but to me that's just so hard to pinpoint. I have no idea what is realistic when it comes to losing body fat. Last year in 8 weeks I dropped 3.2 percentage points so perhaps it'd be realistic to hope to drop at least 6 points. But I'm not declaring that an official goal. I can tell you I would love to be 30% body fat by the end of this challenge, but I don't really think that's realistic so I'm fine if I don't hit that goal. Perhaps just less than 36% would be good since I believe that's as low as it got in 2018.

Another thing I did was take a few pics of some jeans that don't currently fit. If those jeans zip up at the end of 16 weeks and I didn't reach either of the above numbers on the scale I think I'll still be pretty damn happy with my results. I can't control what the scale will read at the end of 16 weeks; but I can control what I do to get there. Consistency is going to help me reach my goals. 2019 needs to be the year that I figure out how to be a little more consistent with my weight loss efforts. Let's do this, friends!

#NOEXCUSES Lifestyle Challenge

It has been one year since I joined Living Lean. I joined last year when my friend convinced me to do their fat loss challenge with her.

When I walked into Living Lean a year ago I was nervous about what I was starting and excited for what was to come. I would love to be telling you that in the year I've been at LL I lost all my weight, but you already know that's not true. You also already know that I had come to the realization that I was totally OK with that.

This is and isn't true. I've said time and time again that I'm a work in progress. I'm trying super hard to be proud of my accomplishments in the last year and leave it at that. But I can't ignore the amount that I've struggled in the year as well. I certainly don't want to ignore my struggles, but I want to learn to see them as just that - struggles - not failures.

The LL challenge this year is called the #NOEXCUSES Lifestyle Challenge. It is quite different from last year and I am beyond excited about it. This year it is a 16 week long challenge and it is meant to focus more on developing a lifestyle as opposed to crash dieting. What's funny is that I've been on this journey for years to try to find my right balance. Last year I talked about how I actually feel like calling it a "lifestyle change" was impeding my weight loss. I still believe that. But, I also believe that perhaps this IS becoming my lifestyle and I might be totally OK with that.

My current lifestyle is to focus on weight loss for a finite period of time, then loosen the reigns a little until I see the scale going in a direction I don't like so I tighten the reigns again. I'm perfectly fine with this lifestyle. I actually think  that this is probably the way most people live. What I need to continue to work on, however, is tightening those reigns a little earlier (especially when I still have 50 pounds to lose). That's going to be my goal during 2019.

I am not thrilled with myself regarding how much weight I once again re-gained from my lowest last year; but I am over it. Clearly I didn't care enough to have stopped eating/drinking so I made the choice; it's time to own it and move on.

Last year I had my final weigh in for the #NOEXCUSES Spring Break Challenge on March 9, 2018.

My stats were:
Weight = 207
Body Fat % = 39
Chest = 35"
Bust = 40"
Waist = 35.5"
Belly = 41"
Hips = 44.5"
Rt. Leg = 25"
Rt. Arm = 13"

When I weighed in for this year's challenge today my stats were:
Weight = 203.8
Body Fat % = 38.6
Chest = 34.5" (-.5 inch)
Bust = 39" (-1 inch)
Waist = 34" (-1.5 inches)
Belly = 38" (-3 inches)
Hips = 43.5" (-1 inch)
Rt. Leg = 24" (-1 inch)
Rt. Arm = 13" (+/- 0)

Aside from the obvious annoyance of being back over 200 pounds, I am proud of these numbers. I may be back above 200 pounds but I weigh 3.2 pounds less than I did at the end of the last challenge, my body fat is lower (barely) and all of my measurements are lower (well, except my arm which is the same). I am also confident that the scale will be back below that 200 mark very soon.

I could beat myself up about that one number not being where I want it to be or I can embrace the fact that I am making positive changes in my life regardless of how long it is taking for these changes to stick! I mean, even though the number on the scale isn't what I want, I am another 8 inches smaller than March of last year. That means that since January 2018 I have lost a total of 22.25 inches. And that's why I can still see a physical difference in the comparison pics above even though the scale is only showing a 3.2 pound difference.

The challenge officially starts Monday and runs through May 6th. There will be prizes at the 8, 12, and 16 week marks. Next post I'll talk about my plan and goals for these next 16 weeks.

2019

Another new year. Another super LONG post 😂

It has been almost 7 years since I started this blog. I'm happy to say that I weigh less today than I did on the day I started this blog. In  years past I would talk about how unhappy I am about the fact that I'm still not at my "goal" weight. I'm not going to say that this year.

SO much has changed with my mindset in the last year that I am going to instead focus on how stoked I am about where I am at.

Towards the end of 2018 I was trying.....OK, I wasn't really trying at all....to stay under 200 pounds. I wanted to end 2018 with a loss in December, but apparently I didn't want it enough. I did well at the start of the month and by mid-December was down about 2 pounds from Dec. 1st. I wrote this blog post on Dec 19th about how I wasn't going to be mad about the fact that I wasn't going to lose weight in December. I talked about 3 goals for the remainder of the year: 1) No Garmin 2) No stressing over food (and eat mindfully) and 3) reflect on 2018.

I call this a success. Last year I gained 7 pounds in December and lost a total
of 8.2 lbs between 1/1/17 and 1/1/18. In 2018 I gained less in December
and lost a total of 22.3 lbs between 1/1/18 and 1/1/19.

I would say I mostly succeeded in those goals. I didn't stress over food and for a while I was able to eat mindfully. Even when I was over indulging I knew exactly what I was doing and I soon decided I was totally OK with it because I was VERY confident that THIS year I would get back on track right away.

You know that I talked about not wanting to see the scale go back above 200. For a while this was really bothering me. When the scale was creeping closer and closer and I wasn't changing my behavior I knew it was inevitable that the scale would go back above 200, if even for a second. At first I decided I wasn't going to get on the scale until today. I figured that would give me 3ish days to get back down under 200.

New Year's Day came and I wasn't going to get on that scale. I knew it was going to be above 200 because on 12/29 I was 198 and there was lots of eating and drinking on both the 30th and 31st. There have been many times that I could "gain" 2 pounds overnight with a night of drinking and eating. I got up late on New Year's Day and shortly after getting out of bed I decided to just get on the scale. Not only did I get on the scale but I didn't care. I didn't care what the number said. I didn't get mad or sad or beat myself up because I "failed". I simply looked at the number and moved on.

If you must know, the number was 201. The number this morning (the day I was going to wait until to weigh myself for my "official" 2019 starting weight) was 199.2. So. If I did what I had planned I would never have seen the scale go above 200. Would that have stopped it from happening? Obviously not. Perhaps avoiding the scale would have meant that it would still be above 200 today because perhaps I wouldn't have been as motivated to get back on track right away.

Christmas Day and I felt amazing!

What amazes me this year and has me so excited for 2019 is my different mindset. Remember when I talked about the fear last year in this post? This is one of the biggest changes I think I've made with my mindset. I used to actually fear seeing the scale go back above 200 because I feared how I would mentally respond to that. I feared it would mean the scale would start going in the opposite direction.

This fear has almost completely gone away and has been replaced with confidence! WHAT?? For right now at least, I no longer fear seeing that 200 on the scale because I am confident that it will go back down. Not only am I confident that it will go back down under 200, but I'm confident that in 2019 it will continue to go back down lower than it has been in over 12 years.

What has helped make this change? The fact that I have also come to the conclusion that I don't care if I hit my "goal" weight in 2019. I decided that I will be perfectly  happy to be writing my 2020 post and talking about how I'm "only" down another 20 pounds. I'm done with the only. Why do I feel like I need to lose all my weight in one year (or even 2) to be successful? That's bullshit. So it's been almost 5 years since my highest weight. So what? In the 4 years and 9 months since I recorded that highest weight I have lost 51.4 pounds (as of my weight this morning). That amounts to less than 12 pounds lost per year; but that's 12 pounds LOST per year for over 4 years in a row. I am no longer looking at that as being a failure. I am seeing it for what it is. Consistency. It may not always feel like consistency because throughout those years my weight has gone up and down; but in the end I weigh 51 pounds less today than I did on April 22, 2014 when I logged my highest weight ever.

Would I love to lose the rest of the weight I want to lose this year? Of course! But will I be mad when I don't? Not anymore and that is such an amazing mental shift that I can't even explain how happy it makes me. For maybe the 2nd time in my life I am starting the year with a level of excitement I can't even believe. The only other time was last year because I had high hopes for the Living Lean #NOEXCUSES Spring Break Challenge.

This post is long enough so stayed tuned for my next one where I talk more about why I am so excited for 2019!

Happy New Year everyone!