Umm, excuse me? Come again? Did you say a GAIN???

Hello friends!
Today, I was driving to my WW meeting envisioning a post that I had been waiting to write. There is a benchmark that I want to hit, and I am was 1.6 away from hitting it. It was one of those days when I could not wait to get to my weigh in so I could text Jon and some friends/family that I always update to share my excitement about this milestone. So, what happens??? I GAINED 0.6. WTF??? A Gain??? Seriously? My goal this week was to lose two, but I pep-talked myself that if I lost 1.6 I would be excited and not disappointed. When the lovely receptionist said, "you're up, but only 0.6. Not a problem at all; you'll have that off next week," I literally wanted to cry. Yes, 0.6 is a small gain but I had goals to not gain for this entire 16 week cycle. I also was on a streak of several weeks in a row with no gain. I also did not expect the gain. Am I over reacting? Probably. Will acknowledging that I am over reacting change my reaction? Definitely not!  And, if I am going to have a gain, I want to be able to eat some crappy food, dang it, and earn that gain!!!

Okay, to focus on some positive things. I have a couple of non-scale victories to share. First of all, this week my girls and I worked hard to give Jon a very clean house for Father's day. We still have a couple of things to do, but overall the house looks great. I was carrying cleaning supplies up the stairs, and my "house-cleaning-shorts-that-shall-not-be-seen-in-public" started falling down. Emma grabbed my shorts and held them up and we walked up the stairs together giggling the whole way. She said, "mom, if you are going to keep getting healthy we might want to buy you some new house cleaning shorts!" It was a cute moment and those shorts are ones from my college days; one of two pairs of WC shorts that I still have! I don't want to let them go (but I am feeling pretty proud that my college shorts are too big!!!)

Today we went to a yard sale of a friend of mine. I bought a 3 piece suit (skirt w/jacket and undershirt),

a dressy tank top, a cute date-night dress, and several workout tanks all in a smaller size than I have worn in years!!! The suite is too tight right now, but I will get into it! The other items fit great. I also scored some brand new Kate Spade sun glasses! (See pic!) My jaw line is still pretty swollen (thank you dry socket!) so ignore my chipmunk cheeks!!! It was a successful trip, and really the first new (or new to me)clothes I have bought myself since I started losing weight!

My final non-scale victory is all the love and support I have. Today, before 7 am, I heard from two friends/family members that are also working on getting and maintaining fitness levels. I am so proud of them and to hear from them so early in relation to working out made me smile (thanks to my girls, I was awake!) During the later morning, I also heard from another friend who hit a great personal mile-stone with her running level. I have gotten several pinterest hits, facebook messages, emails, etc. from other friends and family. For the first time in many weight loss attempts, I feel like this is the time that I am not stopping. I've gone public with my goals and with all of our circles of communication, you all are not going to let me forget it!!!

All in all, I feel pretty good about today and pretty good about this week. I am definitely disappointed in my weight in, but weight watchers posted this picture on FB today  and I feel like it hit home.  Really, in the grand scheme of my weight loss, this small gain this week does not deter from the progress I have made. In thinking of my week, I definitely did not get the fresh fruit and veggies in that I usually get. I had more carbs than usual (I ate toast, rice, chicken noodle soup. Popsicles, fudge bars, and smoothies) in order to accommodate my very sore mouth. Though I counted points, my body is used to much more protein and no so many carbs. I also got in less high intensity miles than I am used to this week. I will chalk this up to a focus on non-scale victories and be ready to celebrate on the scale next week.

As a side note, I bought some Peanut Butter & Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter. I learned about this from another blogger and I found it delicious! (I get no endorsements or anything for blogging about this product). I just wanted to share this with my Weight loss friends because this fudge like PB is only 5 points plus per serving (our regular PB is 6) and it has enough chocolate in it that it will curve a sweet craving for me. Now to see if I can control myself with this in the house...chocolate and PB lovers should give this a try!!! I think it will be great with apple slices. I am excited to give it a try on toast this week.