ABBI-MONSTER strikes again...

This morning, I planned to do a 45 minute workout before the girls got up. They have their well visit appointments today so I wanted to get my workout in before our day began. Abbi had different plans for us.

Abbi earned the nick-name Abbi-Monster when she was kicked out of the nursery her first night after she was born because she was waking up all the other babies. When we call her Abbi-Monster, we mean it with affection and she giggles and "roars" at us. Last night, not a lot of giggling happening in my house! Abbi COULD NOT sleep from 3-6. She was up at 9:30 when we went to check on her (we put her down to sleep at 8:00. She must have dozed off sometime after 9:30, but then at about 11:00 came begging to sleep in our room. We built her a pallet on the floor because she is very difficult to sleep with. She tosses and turns and moans cries. Its quite insane. Anyway, at about 3:00 she asked me if bed time was over, I told her to go back to sleep and she began flipping and flopping and spinning in circles on the floor "trying to get comfortable" . Unfortunately, this is a relatively common occurrence for Abbi. She doesn't sleep all the way through the night very often. She typically wakes up several times at night. I am going to speak to the doctor about this today because after 3 year of this, I would like some solid sleep (and I am POSITIVE Jon feels the same way!) ETA: Her pediatrician reccomended we try melatonin with her... started 1/2 dose tonight.

When our alarm went off this morning, Jon slowly sat up on the side of the bed (we were both exhausted from Abbi). I said, "ugh, this is the type of morning that will tempt you in to an evening workout." He sat there for a second and asked if I wanted to work out this evening instead. I replied some sleepy sort of yes, so we went back to sleep and actually got a solid hour of sleep from 5-6 until Abbi woke up for good. Don't 3-years-olds need more sleep that a few non-consecutive hours? I konw for a fact that 32 year-olds do!

For the last few days, I have been trying out a new ap called "Moves."

A friend introduced it to me and I LOVE IT. Its like a pedometer but it tracks all your movement (running, wiking, biking) it can distinguish when you are traveling in a car and it goes in to batter saver mode when you are inactive. The first day I downloaded it, I cleaned the house for several hours. My phone sat on the charger, or on the counter, or on the dresser. I earned 139 steps... I realized I needed to make a point to keep my phone on me! Saturday, I earned 2,960 steps (again, most of the time at home, I didnt keep my phone on me.).  Sunday back to 192 steps ( a whole day at home, a whole day phoneless!). Yesterday I made a point to keep my phone on me with a goal of 10, 000 steps. I hit 10, 249 walking steps which, according to the ap is 1 hour 36 minuties of walking or 4.4 miles. I did not realize it would track running separately so most of my workout yesterday my phone sat on the treadmill. I picked it up to see if it would count my steps, so i actually earned 0.5 miles running (984 steps in additiona to my 10, 249).

The ap is cool because it shows you how much time you spent each place all day long. The only problem I have with  (aside from my problem of leaving my phone laying around) is it does tend to drain the battery quickly. It is supposed to last all day on one charge, but I guess I am using some other battery hogging aps as well. I find that whenever I am not moving, I need to plug my phone in! Not a huge deal, but just need to charge a little more often than I used to.

And for an update on Emma's "marathon" training. Today she ran a mile with me in 14:40. She shaved 4 minutes of her time and did not complain about running once. It was cooler today and I think the idea of running for a long time scared her. I told her day two would be easier and it was. She said tommorow she was going to run her mile in 5 minutes. If she does, this mamma won't be able to keep up with her!!!

As always, working my way to fit,
Kati

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.

Mental Muscle: Now I get it

One of my favorite magazines has become Runner's World. This months issue has a lot of dedication to Boston, which I very much appreciate. However, tucked in between there is an article entitled Mental Muscle. It was literally like this article was written directly to me.

As positive as I try to be, I am the WORST at negative self-talk during a run. I start telling myself its okay to walk, I negotiate my goals, I remind myself of my progress (which could be positive, but I use it as a crutch). There is no earth shattering advice in this article; in fact, most of it is common sense that once I read I though 'Duh, I DO that!" It is the simple matter of bringing the problem to the forefront of my mind and addressing it.

Reading this article has me inspired for tonight's run. I am going to employ a few of their techniques to get over my own mental road blocks and just make it through my goals. I am pretty excited about it actually. All it took was someone calling me out on something that I do quite frequently, and now I know to watch for it.

Have you ever had something like that?  A road block that was seemingly simple, yet it just took someone calling you out to make you confront the issue?

Wish me luck tonight on my run; I am going to beat my mental negativity.

Working my way to fit,

Kati

That really HURTS!

So I am not typically one to complain about pain; I have a high pain tolerance and when I do finally complain about pain, its usually bad (as in I need medical intervention quickly). I was nervous about having my wisdom teeth taken out because I had heard all kinds of horror stories. I also heard from several people that they were "fine the next day."  I SO VERY BADLY wanted to be in the "fine the next day" category. Alas, I was/am not.

On Saturday, I was feeling okay so we did a 2.2 mile walk with the kiddos. When I woke up Sunday, the swelling on my face was worse than the day before. I ended up needing more pain pills, so my goal of working out was thwarted. Yesterday, Emma and I did lots of organization and cleaning. Between Ibuprofen and ice, I was able to tolerate my mouth pain most of the day. When Jon arrived home though, I took another pain pill and went to sleep with ice on my face.

Today, 3/4 of my mouth feels fine. I feel like I could go easily run if it were just those three teeth that were extracted...and then there's the bottom left  that is KILLING me! I go back to the doctor tomorrow; I feel like something has to be not right about the way its healing. It is significantly more painful than the rest. Honestly, the others are still a little sore and a little bruised, but my goodness it feels like he left a scalpel down in my jaw on the left side.

My plan for the rest of the day is to finish organizing the spare bedroom with E and then go through E's drawers to clear out some of the clothes she has out grown. I am trying to keep myself active during the day so as to get some activity points.

Walking is a great exercise and I am going to try  do a bit of a walk today with E; its better than nothing!

Here's hoping my next post is done without mention of pain!

Working my way to fit,
Kati

Loss of Wisdom...teeth, that is!

Good evening blogging family,
Its been a couple of days since I last posted because we went through some changes in our household. First all, we changed cable/Internet providers. My last post was right before the installation man came out and installed the new "stuff." For those of you that know me, you may remember how unpleased I was with our first company and that I got tired of fighting them over price, so I dropped them. It was a comical scene, but essentially I refuse to speak with anyone from that company at this point. We switched to a new provider and were relatively happy, but then some salesmen came to our door and offered a pretty decent savings for switching companies, so Jon signed on. I wanted to drop cable completely, and just use Internet. Anyway, we now have a new company and today is the first day I have had the opportunity to set up the lap top with the new information.

In my last post, I spoke of my goal for National Running Day was to be able to hit 4.75 miles in 60 minutes. I DID IT! I actually hit 4.83 miles which is an average of an 12.25 minute mile. Since I do interval training, I actually know that my walk is at a 15 or a 14.45 minute mile and my run is between an 11:00 and 11:30 minute mile. I looked back at Map My Run and saw that I was averaging a 16-12 minute mile back in July of 2012, so I have knocked about 5 minutes off my time. I am liking those results and my goal is to get down to a 10 minute mile. In every interval run, I do the last part of my run at a 6 (10 minute mile). I am getting there!!!

On Thursday, I was pretty sore from my longer run the day before, so I just did a quick 5k. I ran the 5k in 36 minutes, but I did a total of 45 on the treadmill.

I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed on Friday and thought I'd get out for a long walk today. Unfortunately, a trip to the grocery store did me in and I needed a long nap. One of my teeth was a little complicated because of the way it had grown in, so there is some extra swelling and extra bruising around that tooth. The Doc said I could get back to exercising on Monday, but my goal is to get a short walk on Sunday. I don't want to cause any unnecessary new bleeding. Edited to add: The girls wanted to take a walk (after my post) so we went on a family walk; we did 2.2 miles in 41 minutes. I was not in any extra pain, and I was proud of the entire family for getting out and walking.

The good news: this should be the last of my surgeries for a while. :) Two surgeries in a matter of three weeks is enough for me!

I hope you are all having a good weekend, I am off to check out some of my other favorite bloggers!

As always, working my way to fit, (but today, I am lounging my way to recovery!)

Kati

Believe it. Be it. Weekly weigh in and National Runners Day

Last night, baby sister and I went to Planet Fitness to work off a delicious dinner out. I decided I wanted a longer burn, so I set the treadmill for 60 minutes. I was trying to pace myself because I knew that I would run out of steam early. I made it 4.63 miles in interval running/walking (5 minute warm up and cool down) so really, 4.63 miles in 50 minutes. I am pretty pleased with this and it was a new record for me.

With today being National Running Day, something I learned from a life-long friend, I wanted to celebrate my new length record. I found this national running day bib here and had to think long and hard before I came up with a reason that was significant enough for me. I run for a lot of reasons, but most importantly, running is a vehicle on my road to fitness and health.  Tonight, my goal, will be to hit 4.75 miles :)

During my run at PF last night, I avoided my usual Ipod and music and plugged in to the tv because Extreme Weight Loss was on. The person on the show yesterday had a tattoo that said "Believe it, Be it, 155" written across her stomach. In one year, she went from 413lbs to 155lbs. I was amazed watching her run and exercise and so very proud of her accomplishment. I love the idea behind "Believe it. Be it." I have been looking for a short quick little mantra to recite to myself when I am plagued with self-doubt and I think I will keep the "Believe it. Be it." as something to remember.

You all know that I made some food choices beyond my normal routines this week with the party, the emotional eating, etc. I still was not worried about my weigh-in today because I knew that I had tracked every bite and that I was well within my total weekly allowable. At today's weigh-in, I was down -2.8!!! Woohooo!!!

As long as all goes well on Friday, I will be back to WW on Sundays from now on! I am looking forward to it; I miss my meeting leader and the friends I have made during my Sunday weigh ins.

Another shout-out to my newest runners who completed day 3 today. I am SO VERY PROUD of you!

Working my way to fit,

Kati

Food is not a cure-all...

One important lesson I have learned, and am still learning in this journey is that there will be hiccups. Just because I have decided I want to be healthy and fit, does not always mean the emotional side of my brain will listen to the logical side of my brain. Sometimes, emotions will run high, and the desire to turn to food for comfort or turn to food to fill a need (other than hunger) will arise. I am currently in the midst of one of those times. It will be short-lived, and I will not falter, because even now as I am writing, I am gaining the confidence that I will not let this hiccup derail my progress.

This is going to sound childish, but I am trying to be non-specific. Essentially someone hurt my feelings within the last couple of days. Instead of confronting the issue immediately, I let it fester then I saw lots of little things that continued to hurt my feelings. Yesterday, at work, I was a little bored. Not because I don't have a ton to do, but because most of the work I need to do is office work. I enjoy working with children and I like a nice mix of office work and working with kids.

Essentially, here is the UGLY equation:

Festering Hurt Feelings + Boredom+ left over party sweets= potential for disaster.

On the way home from work, I convinced myself that I "needed" chocolate. When I got home, I indulged. At this point, I was still within my points-plus, so it was fine. By the end of the night, I had gone in to some of my weekly allowable; I did not binge on sugar (though, I very easily could have). 

What I should have done was go to planet fitness, but I wanted my three workout days to fall Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday since I am having oral surgery on Friday. In retrospect, I still should have just gone and gotten out of the house and away from temptation. I always feel better after workout, and I certainly don't want to waste points after I just worked my tush off!!!  

The point of this post is that this morning, I still had the desire for unhealthy eating. Enjoying some chocolate yesterday did not make my issues go away. My feelings are still hurt, and I am still battling some deep rooted insecurities. This fitness journey is not just about eating healthy and exercising, there is a mental and emotional side to eating as well. Until we confront and address those issues, the temptation to turn to food for comfort will always be there. 

The good news is that I am able to recognize the problem and not allow myself to go crazy. Even yesterday, I tracked every bite. Today, I am just going "cold turkey" and not allowing my-self any additional sugar. I am not "waiting for Monday" to restart. I never really stopped. I hit a bump, I recognize it, and I am readjusting. I am also still fully expecting a loss at my weigh-in because I have been well within my weekly allowable points and I did not even touch my exercise points.

I get daily inspirational quotes in my email and the picture above was yesterday's. It couldn't have come at a more needed time. I have the optimism and I have the hope. I am working on the confidence.

On a totally different note: there are a couple of people that I care deeply about that have taken the last couple of days to really start a new exercise and eating program. I am immensely proud of them and hope to continue to receive updates. Here's a shout out to you (if you read my blog!) Keep it up!! I am proud!!

Party Recap: Cupcakes, Icecream, and Krispy Kreme Donuts

I shared with you on Friday that we were heading to Ohio for the kid's birthday party and that being in Ohio was always a struggle for me. Going home to comfort food and snacks; it CAN be a weight watcher's nightmare...but this time, it was not. I am really proud of the choices I made while at home this trip. And, of course, traveling can always be difficult because of the lure of snack food. A trip with no snacking was not only healthier, but it was also cheaper. :)

To recap the weekend, our counseling crew went to lunch on Friday to a place that we had never been. The food was fresh and it was delicious. I definitely ate more points than I planned on, but the food was so fresh that I enjoyed it and did not regret it. On Friday night, as we were traveling, we stopped at a restaurant of Abbi's choosing (for her birthday). I went for the tilapia and steamed rice with a caesar salad. All in all, I ended up using some of my "weekly allowable 49 points" but I was pretty happy with my food choices. I ate out twice in the same day without going crazy.

On Saturday, (party day) I knew it was going to be a high point day. I started the day with a run; I did

between 3.1 and 3.5 miles total. Its hard to know exactly because we were running on a loop at a park and there was no good mile marker. We were told the loop was right at a mile, but based on my pace, I think its a little less than actual mile. I went 4 loops; Jon went 5. We warmed up together, ran one entire loop at my pace and then cooled down together. It felt great exercising with him. It also felt great being able to completely run the loop 2 times with no walking. I did interval walking on the 3rd loop. (The 4th loop was our warm up/cool down and a little running to finish out the time). Overall, it was a great 40 minute workout.

In anticipation for the party, I only ate a protein bar after my run. At the party, I kept portions small (or normal) and stayed within my points range. I ate one cupcake and one scoop of ice cream. For "dinner" i had one serving of veggie chips. I ended party day with only using 1 "weekly allowable."

Sunday was travel day; traveling as a weight watcher is much cheaper than traveling as a snacker! My big problem came when we got home. Allowing myself a cupcake on Saturday, and a cupcake on

Sunday with lunch, my body was craving sugar. Little sister had a box of krispy kreme donuts at my house when I got home and I gave in and ate 1. Just 1. But on top of the cupcake from earlier, my "not used to sugar" body rejected that donut! I was sick during my run Sunday night. I still made it 3.3 miles, but it was not a happy 3.3 miles.

Overall, the weekend went very well. The party was a success; I got to see and vist with lots of family that I had not seen in a while. I also got to meet my life-long friend's new baby :) She is such a sweet sweet baby.

I am going to weigh in this week on Wednesday morning, but then its back to Sundays. My weekends have been a little crazy lately, but I see things settling soon. I was able earn 49 activity points last week, so I am hoping to hit 50 this week.

Hope you all had an enjoyable weekend.
Working my way to fit,

Kati

Non-scale Victories

Non-Scale Victories (NSV) are important to acknowledge because there are times when the scale doesn't reflect the hard work that we have put in. There are also times, even when the scale is reflecting hard work, that NSVs can add a bit of excitement. I have a couple NSV's to share from this week. 

First of all, I started a sticker chart for both Jon and I back in November when we first re-joined weight watchers. Each sticker equals a pound loss. I also have a picture of my girls right by our sticker chart to remind us that we are setting habits for our children that are lifelong. Between the two of us, there are 99 stickers hanging on my refrigerator.  The average weight for a 12-13 year old girl is 95-105. We have lost a 12 year old!!!

This sticker chart, along with my girls pic, hanging on my fridge is an anchor that keeps me steady when I want to head in for my evening snacks!

Another NSV to celebrate is a moment between Jon and I yesterday. We were having a conversation, and I went to hug him. We were standing there talking, and Jon had his short arms wrapped all the way around my waist and his hands were linked together. This was a HUGE deal for me, but I didn't even notice at first. We were just chatting in that position, and then it hit me, "Are your hands linked together!!!" We both started giggling because its been a long time since we could stand like that. I guess, when you remove 100 pounds out of the hug, hugging gets easier!

Last night I was packing to go to Ohio for the weekend and I was trying on clothes. I was 'shopping' in the small section of my closet. I tried on two shirts that I have not worn in years. Both fit very nicely! They are also the smallest shirts in my closet so I am to the end of my own closet shopping! I will be wearing one of the two shirts on Saturday at a family function.

My last NSV to celebrate today is the demise of a "favorite" shirt! I had this shirt that I bought at Lane Bryant that fit nicely, it was black, and I wore it often with jeans. Last time I wore it, I thought it looked sloppy because it was too big now. However, I refuse to buy new clothes right now, so i am continuing to wear these clothes. Well apparently, my laundry skills are lacking because I bleached my "favorite" shirt. I couldn't even be sad about it because I really shouldn't be wearing it any more!  

This weekend we are heading to Ohio for a family function. This is always a challenge for me but my parents have been doing calorie counting as well. In fact, my dad has lost 40 pounds and won a biggest loser challenge. Mom has lost 30--I am very proud of them both! I plan to stay on track and stay focused, even with the upcoming challenge.

Until next time, working my way to fit,

Kati

Early morning #3..

Quick post today because I am in a bit of a hurry. This morning was #3 of going to PF prior to starting my day. The last two mornings, I have arrived by 4:45 (EEEEEEK). For some reason, today was rough and I did not get a full run in. I did my normal warm up, started to run at a 5.5 pace and EXCRUCIATING pain radiated from my middle two toes. I hopped off the treadmill, stretched, jumped on my toes, and decided to try again. It was still hurting, though not as bad. I decided to just do a fast walk instead. I walked a 4+ pace. I ended up doing 2.6 miles in 40 minutes. After walking all day on my foot, it feels much better. I am not sure what the problem was this morning.

I will say that I learned that three mornings of working out equals a day of feeling HUNGRY all day. I emailed Jon to tell him I was ready to eat my arm! I stayed on point though; I snacked with two apples and an orange. (Normally, I only need one snack during the day and its usually an apple!). 

Tonight is Emma's final soccer party so we are going to a pizza place. I have enough points for two pieces of cheese pizza and a shared Caesar salad. I'm planning ahead so I keep true to my program.

Have a great night! Thanks for reading--I enjoy all of the messages I have gotten :)

As always, working my way to fit,

Kati

Another one bites the dust

I can not believe the end is here. Today is our last school day for students; while I still have to work, there is a different pressure once students are gone! I have been thinking a lot about my goals for this summer; I really want to boost my weight loss efforts with more increased exercises.

I was reading a weight loss blog post about doing a 3 days on, 1 day off workout routine. Jon and I discussed it and that was the routine we were to start following. Jon has done AWESOME! He is slimming down and he has really embraced the 3on1off. I, however, have not. It seems like there is always something stopping me. This week, it has been recovery from my surgery. Last week, it was an insane schedule of soccer games and practices.

Starting this weekend, our lives seem to settle down a bit. My goal is to hit PF tonight, Saturday and Sunday for my 3 on. I will take Monday off. Then, I hope to be able to go to PF before work on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of next week. Since students are not in school, I won't need to be as early as I have been.

Working out in the evening is a challenge because more appealing opportunities arise. I am really hoping that by trying to incorporate morning workouts, I will get in a nice rhythm by the time next school year starts.

As a fun side note: I started the C25K program last June and struggled to "run" two miles in 35 minutes. In fact, I remember thinking "running" 3 minutes in a row was HARD. Now, I am doing interval training runs for 50 minutes and am hitting over 4 miles. I am pretty proud of the progress I have made in a year. I still have a long way to go, but isn't that the point of the weight loss journey? There is always room to do better!

Have a happy Friday!

Working my way to fit!

Kati

Long time, no post!

I was shocked to check back at my blog and realize that it has been since February since my last post! Life got busy and blogging got put on the back-burner. I follow so many wonderful blogs that I found I would rather spend my time reading what those authors were writing than taking the time to write my own post. However, now that summer is approaching and life is settling down, my goal is to get back to writing. Since it has been so long since my last post, I am going to post a few updates.

Weight loss: I have been going strong and faithfully following the weight watchers program. I am currently at a total loss of 46 lbs. We have a new leader that I like a lot and I have found that tracking is key. As long as I am tracking, I am losing!

Exercise: Exercise has been more sporadic than I would like, but I have reached some new personal records. I did interval training with Jon for 4.56 miles; my goal was to hit 4 miles, I never dreamed to him 4.56. Now, my next goal is 5 miles.

Other health: I had my first of two surgeries this week. Because of this week's surgery, I have not been to Planet Fitness this week at all. All went well with the surgery and I am feeling much better.  I hope to be back at PF by this weekend! My oral surgery (wisdom tooth extraction) is scheduled for June 7th.

I am hoping to be more diligent about journaling my weight loss journey. I have been so inspired by the weight loss blogs and running blogs that I follow; I want to keep this blog as a documentation of my journey.

Until next time,
Working my way to fit,
Kati

I survived...and so did my weight loss

So, I made it through the toughest part of the year for me. The combination of mine and Hailey's birthdays are usually quite rough. Its usually about a two week period that I am just NOT myself.  I love to celebrate my own birthday, but its been hard since Hailey; those days are just so close together.

I approached these days with a plan:

1. Do not turn to food for grief
2. Maintain my excerice
3. Allow myself 2 pounds gain without being upset

Sounds like a great plan--here is what actually happened.

1. There were days that I did make unhealthy food choices, but I did not go "crazy" as I would have in the past. I did not just sit and eat chips and feel sorry for myself, but I did indulge in some unclean food that I have not allowed myself to have (because I don't trust myself to stop once I start).  I ate the meal, but counted the points. I went over on my points, and used my weekly allowable, plus some. But I was still conscious of what I ate instead of just blindly eating crap.

2. I did not maintain my excerice like I would have wanted too. Instead of hitting the gym, I did lot of play time with the kids, spent some time on my treadmill (not as much as I like), but mainly focused on positive energy with the family.

3.  Weight gain without being upset... So I tried to use the plan that our leader talked about over Holidays. Give yourself a limit and do not be mad if you gain within that limit. I decided two pounds would be it.

Week 1: Gain 4.6 (GASP) okay, I can be mad because I certaininly went over that two pound limit. I got myself a little more under control. Concentrated a little more on tracking...

Week 2:  Loss 4.4. Overall, I had a gain of 0.2, which is well within my two pound allowance.

So, I made it through my "dark" month with only a minimal gain, a few days of tears, and lots of successes. I am beyond blessed with great friends and a great family. I am so excited that spring is approaching and am looking forward to being "me" again.

So, long February!
Working my way to fit,
Kati