One More Four Day Weekend After This One

It’s another four-day weekend for me today….yippie!  I have one left in the month of June and then my days off switch so I’ll be working the weekends for our third quarter.

I am planning to rest this weekend.  I am still feeling so exhausted this week.  I didn’t go visit my aunt last night because the physical therapist feels she has too many visitors and it is wearing her out.  Rude!  Maybe she is just loved.  Either way, I skipped my visit and went to the gym with Kelsey and Tracy for the Pound class.  I really wanted to stay home and veg but thought I should get in some movement.  It is always a fun class and I am glad I joined them.  Later today, I am hoping to get out for a walk with Kelsey.

As far as the rest of the weekend, my only social outing is Cinco de Mayo.  If you don’t see me out and about, expect to see me on my couch!  Monday afternoon I have a training for work that I am excited to attend.

I may or may not check in this weekend.  I’ll see where my mood takes me.

My Typical Week

I shared yesterday that I’m losing a bit of steam when it comes to weight loss.  Over the last 11 years, I’ve struggled on and off with the mental side of weight loss.  I still stand behind the belief that weight loss is mostly mental.  But, after sharing about my struggles with my WW Buddies on our FB page, I was reminded that wanting to lose weight isn’t just enough.  You have to act and actually make changes and continue to work at it.

 

My typical week is usually the same.  I am on track the best when I am at work.  I pre-plan my meals, bring my lunch, and rarely do I waver from that plan when the food-decision-of-the-day comes up during my shift.  I don’t have any sort of set points that I use but a typical days involves the most points used a breakfast.  I also spend several points each day for half-and-half in my coffee.  On workdays, I have yogurt with fruit as a snack and my afternoon iced coffee is made with a Starbucks unsweetened bottled coffee, chocolate Muscle Milk, and Coffemate Coconut creamer.  I really look forward to my afternoon iced coffee and it feels like a dessert/treat with the chocolate Muscle Milk.

Dinners are much easier on the nights Kenyon is at work and I am fending for myself.  I wouldn’t describe him as “picky” but it is harder to find something the both of us like that is also point friendly for me and low carb for him.  I am also the worst at planning and preparing dinner.  It has always been my downfall and it is why I tend to lose weight better when I am on night shift.  It just feels easier when I eat the majority of my meals at work and only eat breakfast at home.  I love breakfast foods so that is the easiest meal to cook.

Here is a peek at my tracker for Monday and Tuesday and what I have pre-planned for the rest of today:

After being on track Monday and eating really low points, Tuesday was an unplanned splurge day.  I had planned to stop into the hospital after work but realized pretty quickly that I didn’t plan a snack or anything to hold me over until I had gotten home.  I also didn’t plan on being there as late as I was.  So, I was starving and talked myself into eating out.  I had chicken and corn on the cob at home but allowed myself to waver.  I am feeling some guilt today but decided to track it and move on!

Today is a new day and I am back on track.  I am going home before I go to the hospital after work.  I am going to eat my chicken and corn on the cob before going to see my aunt so I am not starved and won’t talk myself into eating out again.  Planning and tracking are always keys for greater success.

Well, all that leaves is weekends/social events, which is the biggest culprit of my weight loss struggles.  The bottom line is: I love my life and I love all the social outings with my friends. 

 

I sometimes have good intentions to branch out from food/drinks but the social person inside of me loves that part.  I don’t want to cut that out, I’ve been there before.  And, when I am on graveyard, my friends tend to take a back seat to my crappy schedule.  Now that I am on day shift again, I am really enjoying that extra time with my friends.  I’m just not willing to cut that out. 

Where does that leave me?  Well, as that same awesome WW Buddy gave me the advice at the start of this post, she also reminded me that the scale is going down, even if it is at a slow pace.  I’m going to keep doing what I am doing and work harder at moving my body more and evaluating my splurges.  A weeknight trip to Sonic because I am overly hungry might not have been the best reason to splurge when I have plans this weekend for Cinco de Mayo events.  It is tracked and onward we go.

Weekly WI: Losing Steam

My weigh-in last week was…okay.  I know I told myself back in January that down is good, and it is.  But it is still very hard to muster up the motivation to keep going.  Usually in the days before my WI, I am very anxious and nervous about the scale.  I always think to myself “have I done enough this week?”  “Could I have done more?”  I went into my meeting feeling confident and didn’t peek at the scale at home that morning.  I do think not looking at the home scale helps me mentally.  I had a loss of 0.6 pounds.  Down is good.  Down is good.  Down is good.

Of course, I wanted to lose more but what I really wanted was to be in the 2-teens.  I have been waiting so long to see that number and yet, it eludes me.  I know I can do more and I know it is all up to me if I’m going to see the results I desire.  So many times I find myself wishing it was easier.

I am patting myself on the back for being down 10.2 pounds since January.  I am down 12.8 pounds since Freestyle rolled out.  And lastly, I am down 31.4 pounds since July of 2016, which was when I reached my all-time high regain weight.

 

There is a lot of celebrate.  I need to have a serious talk with myself and get refocused.  I indulged a lot this weekend and besides feeling a bit guilty, my rings are pretty tight.  I feel so much better when I am eating healthy foods.  My meal plan is a little sparse this week and I must reel in my spending.  My month has gotten a bit out of control with a few unexpected items and social events and I still have half a month to go before my credit card billing cycle ends.  I’m going to have to start to get creative and use foods up that I have on hand at home.

The other thing I noticed after the weekend is that when I have my WI/WW meeting on Monday, it sets my week off on the right foot.  When I have my meeting on Saturday, I think I splurge a lot more and my tracking is practically non-existent.  The newness of using eTools to track is starting to wear off.  I think I’m just getting bored in general.  I’m not sure what I can do to spice things up.  I really like the Monday morning leader so I do plan to keep going to that meeting when I don’t have other scheduling conflicts.  I considered skipping the meeting/scale this week in lieu of doing my WI on Monday but the meeting topic this week is a good one.  So, I think I’ll swing into a Friday AM meeting and then maybe just double back to a Monday meeting.  I can always skip the scale if I feel like I need to and/or just prepare for a smaller loss/gain due to not have many days between my WW weeks and weigh-ins.

Sometimes, you need to be in that meeting chair.