Weigh in Report for Thursday October 30th

I was down 2.8 pounds today! Boy that felt good.

This weekend I am going to Chicago and wanted to make sure that I weighed in and hit a meeting before leaving town so I went to the 5:30 meeting tonight. It is a different leader than my Saturday morning leader but I enjoy this leader as well.
I hated weighing in so late in the day, but it was my only option. I didn't think I would see much of a loss because I just figure that we weigh more at the end of the day than at the beginning so I was pleasantly surprised to see such a big number after being back on track for only 5 days!

I have really been on track too. I am feeling strong and clear headed. I've been getting my lunch time walks in (despite is being a blustery 36 degrees the other day)and have loved kicking my feet through the leaves and enjoying the pretty colors. My eating has been stellar. I am weighing and measuring everything.

I am really glad I weighed in tonight as I think this will give me a nice mental boost to stay on track this weekend. I know I won't be perfect, but it helps that the long time friend I am visiting was my Weight Watchers leader waaaaayyyyy back in 1998/9. She is such a thoughtful friend and has offered to stock anything in the house that will help me stick to my plan.

I am so looking forward to seeing her and seeing a bit of Chicago.

Day four still on track

Today was day four back in control. It went great again. I am at 26 of my 28 daily points. I didn't get a walk in at lunch, but I did stay and do yoga tonight after work.
The stress level is cranking up in the office, but I continued to resist the candy dish.
Today after work I stopped to the grocery store and got a few things to take with me on my trip this weekend. I plan to take some yogurt, fresh fruit, pretzels and will pack some fresh veggies to snack on in the car.
I feel so in control again. I love it.

Here's to day 5.

Only Eight More Days

Well only 8 more days until the election. I’ve managed my third day totally back on track. I used all of my daily points today and feel very satisfied. I feel clear headed and calm. I did manage a brisk 15 minute walk today at lunch and stayed after work for the yoga class. I’m still lacking on the water drinking, but the fruit and vegetable consumption is WAY up.

I did spend a bit of time reading old blog posts and that is helping as well.

This Friday I am heading to Chicago to see one of my dearest friends. I’ve only been to Chicago once before and that was on a Mary Kay (yes the makeup) bus trip. It will be nice to see Chicago thru the eyes of someone who lives there. I am especially looking forward to visiting the three story Macy’s store.
I am a bit disappointed to miss weigh in on Saturday, but I will try to hit another meeting this week before I leave town.

Two Whole Days

I’ve been two days (Sat and Sun) within my points and not binging on anything. I’d say it’s a start. Today I had to make some tough choices to stay on track. I went to visit a friend and his wife and of course that leads to lunch out. Why does everything have to involve food? We went to Red Robin. Their menu looks like a heart attack waiting to happen. I chose the dinner salad with fat free ranch on the side. It was pretty much just lettuce and tomato. I also had the French Onion soup. This can be a dicey choice with all the cheese they load onto it. But I actually had the balls to peel the cheese off and discard it. So essentially, I had beef broth with onions. I counted 4 points for it. I did have about 5 of my friends French fries so I counted 2 points for those.
More important than making good choices at lunch is that after I left their house, I did NOT stop at the Crispy Cream donut shop for a half dozen glazed donuts and a chocolate milk. That would have been a 20 point mistake. I thought about stopping and getting one donut but knew that would just start a cycle once I got home so skipped it altogether. Maybe someday I will be normal and be able to enjoy just one of something.

Hello....Rock Bottom? I'm back but not Staying

I’ve been away for a while….too long. I have fallen so far off the wagon, I can’t even see it in the distance pulling away. Today I was up 4 pounds! My weight is creeping up. I’ll gain a couple, then lose one, overall this is going in the wrong direction. I have gained a total of 6 pounds from my lowest weight. It is time to get things back under control. I think not blogging has made it easier to ignore what has been happening the last couple of weeks.

So what has happened to me? I’m not entirely sure, but I have a few ideas/excuses. None of them are valid enough to allow myself to go back to the way I was over a year ago. I cannot let myself continue to spiral back to that weight.
I like my new job and am settling in fine. The emotional stress of the upcoming election has us all coming unglued right now. Here is a somewhat short version of what is happening. My boss is an elected official and a Republican. She has been the County Clerk for 8 years and has worked in the clerk’s office for a total of 31 years. She is a very nice boss and very capable at her job. For the first time in years the Republicans have competition on the local level with Democratic opponents.

I live in a major college town and the Democratic Party did a great job of getting the young people registered to vote. Our county is up over 12 percent for registered voters since the last election. I think that it is the responsibility of every person to exercise their right to vote. People in other countries would kill to have our right to vote. But I digress…. As the Dems got the kids to register, they also “coached” them on how to vote. The vast majority of these kids are not local students but rather from all over the state. The people registering them knowing that the registering student would want to vote for Obama, told them not to worry about learning about the various candidates, rather they should just mark “straight party ticket” and make it easy on themselves. I just don’t think that was the right thing to do. We should be encouraging people to learn about the candidates and offices and make informed choices, not just elect someone because of their party affiliation.

All of that being said, sure I would like my boss to be reelected, but I will happily work for Andrew if he is elected. I just want to keep my job. I found out that as an elected official, he can change the entire staff when he takes office if he so chooses and I could be out of a job. I am really hoping that doesn’t happen, but you can imagine the stress I feel when I think about how powerless I am in this situation.

So not only have I started eating from the candy dish at work when no one is looking, I also found a bag of Halloween candy in John’s car that he was trying to keep away from me and polished that off too. I have been manic about my eating. I couldn’t shovel the candy in my mouth fast enough; I didn’t taste any of it as I ripped the packages open and then had a belly ache afterwards.

So I don’t really have answers on how to fix this but I do have some things I am working on. One, I am going to the beginning of the blog and rereading every post I’ve written in the hopes I will find the fire I have lost. Two, I am only worrying about the day in front of me and each day make a promise for just that day to stay in my points and not binge. I sound like an addict, and I guess I am. Food had so much of a hold on my life.

I have a bell!

The owner of the Club Liberty was selling off some of her non-regulation kettlebells so I bought one. I ordered one online over 5 weeks ago and it is still on back order and I was tired of waiting. I figure if the one I ordered shows up, I'll have a pair.

So tonight I did my first loner kettle bell workout. John was outside playing with the dogs (I didn't want any of the dogs getting a concusion while I was swinging my bell.

I did a 25 minute workout and now I am dripping with sweat and my muscles are twitching. I loved it. Of course its not the same as being with all my kettle bell girls, but I really missed the feeling of sweat rolling down the sides of my face and the endorphins that kick in almost immediately. I think the lack of this hard sweat is what has made me feel so blah. Maybe I really need that post workout high to keep my eating more in line.

Kettle Bell Torture and Weigh in Report

Down .8 pounds today. I'm really getting things under control again.
I didn't stay for the meeting today, instead I made the all too familiar commute to go to Kettlebell and see a few of the friends I have missed since I started my new job.
Holly Shit! The only exercise I've been doing the past month is walking with mom every day for 30 minutes. I have not done a "real" workout since I left my old job a month ago. I was winded, had to sit down at one point becuase I was close to passing out, and went to the bathroom to throw up (false alarm). Talk about out of shape!
I ordered a kettle bell for home but it is on back order. So I have got to make a point to get over to kettle bell more often to do real workouts.