Month: October 2017

Let me just begin my post sharing how grateful I am for my Saturday Morning Weight Watchers (WW) Meeting. I am part of a supportive and caring community and that makes all the difference. I am blown away by the generosity of the group.  We trust each other to share our ups and downs as we all follow our own paths to get to goal (or to stay at goal).  Plus, I get to do this all with my sister, who I love more than I can say. It’s strange to write this, but if I didn’t have to lose weight, I would be missing all this quality time with her and my WW friends. So, maybe needing to lose weight is a blessing:

I lost weight again this week and bit by bit I am getting closer to my goal every week.  After the meeting, my sister and I went to Trader Joe’s and then I bought myself a cool new pair of Adidas sneakers (truth is my sister encouraged me to do it). I’ve been telling her for weeks that I want them. Hey, I’m all for a little retail therapy once in a while (a topic of discussion at my WW meeting :D):

I keep thinking about the ups and downs of a weight loss process. For me, recently, it’s been more “ups” than “downs.” Why? Is it this blog, refocusing me to reflect on my feelings? Maybe. Is it because I’m feeling better? Possible. Is it because I see the scale moving down? It could be.

Then I think about whether this time (you see, I’ve lost a lot of weight in the past) is different. I think it definitely is.  I think the difference is that I’m totally opening up my heart to the process of what it takes to get to goal. Opening up your heart means letting others in, and not being afraid to be vulnerable.  What I’ve learned from last time to this is time is that I know that I will never totally beat this. I will always have to be mindful about healthy living. That said, I now believe that can learn how to live in a way that I can be successful.

Anyway, thank you thank you for reading. My wish for you is that you take some time to reflect on your journey, then find someone to share your thoughts. Be unabashedly vulnerable because that is real empowerment and ownership – that is how you really go beyond the scale.

Happy Friday! I began the day dropping off my son at school. I was feeling generous and bought him a breakfast sandwich at Starbucks. Boy, it did smell delicious. Let’s just say, double smoked bacon…  The strange thing was, I did not feel tempted – at all! I did get a Grande Skinny Latte (4sp)  which I enjoyed immensely:

Today was not only Friday but it was a staff breakfast day. The teachers who did breakfast put out a beautiful elaborate spread.  There were little breakfast sandwiches, baked goods, pudding with chocolate chips and whipped cream. Homemade banana chip muffins, candy, pumpkin bread. Honestly, you can’t imagine how much food was there. I thought to myself, “What a nice gesture, how nice of them to go to so much trouble for all this for all of us.” I took a halo (it was ripe and sweet) and went on my way.

I wanted to do something nice for myself so I got a manicure-pedicure after work.  I offered to take my daughter but she wasn’t interested. So I went on my own, and it was  such an enjoyable relaxing experience:

You know when everything on you WW plan starts to click? You have a sense of control – and you think to yourself, “I’ve got this.” That is where I am at today. Day forty-eight came and now I feel like I can handle anything that comes my way.

Tomorrow is weigh-in day. I hate to say it, but I have a good feeling that I will be down this week.  Then I think to myself, “What if you’re not, will it ruin your meeting? If your the same, or worse than that UP, will it stifle the positive feelings and send you into a spiral?” The thing is these anxious thoughts and feelings don’t help and won’t change a thing if it turns out that way.

I know that I have done an excellent job this week:

• I got to Spin twice
• I went walking with my sister twice
• I prepped my foods, made healthy meals
• I reflected on my progress every day

If I don’t have a BIG NUMBER on the scale, that doesn’t detract from any of my progress. I can’t control the number that will greet me tomorrow morning. I can do help myself to see the BIG PICTURE – I can be happy with all my accomplishments. Eventually, I will get to goal.

My parting words for this post for today are to please be kind to yourself. Give yourself the time and space to try, mabe fail and then try again.  Give yourself permission to feel successful be proud of everything because you’re doing the work and you deserve to feel good about yourself – no matter what! 

Well, I discovered another reason why 5:15 am Spin class may be the way to go during the work week. Today I planned to go to 4:30 pm Spin. I brought in a change of clothes and at the end of the workday, I jumped in my minivan determined to get in my workout.  BAM there was a big accident on Sunrise HWY and my good intentions were as stalled as my minivan. I did not go to Spin.  It’s easier to control getting up early than the traffic!

As soon as I got in the door I was consumed by a myriad of things that needed my attention. I had to return phone calls, pay some bills, open the mail. My son needed me to sign permission slips, my daughter wanted to talk, my husband needed me to help him out with a few things. Plus, on every Thursday, for the past two years, I host a Twitter chat called #G2Great. This is my life.

I know you understand because I’m sure that you could easily fill in your own paragraph of daily challenges and demands. It would be so easy get thrown off track. Grab a handful of pretzels here or a Dove chocolate there and fall into old habits. Frustration, being overwhelmed, or plain old distraction can easily trigger an unconscious response. I am becoming more self-aware of my triggers.

I am not perfect, but for today I stayed on target even though it was challenging and things didn’t work out as planned.  More tomorrow…

I am working on having a greater awareness of gratitude, and today I am grateful for my crock pot.  Yes, seriously. My crock pot made it possible for me to come home from work and go out walking with my sister.  It was a beautiful day and the walk was challenging but I felt good:

I came home had some delicious stew, and instead of having it over egg noodles I substituted spaghetti squash. I was a little leery because the last time I prepared that it wasn’t that great.  Well, it must have been the freshness or how long I cooked it because this time it was outstanding. Spaghetti squash is going to be a friend of mine:

I helped a friend today, and I am grateful that I have such good friends. People who won’t let me down, and who appreciates me for who I am. I am fortunate that my family, friends, and my Saturday morning WW group are so supportive as I go through this journey to finally get to goal.

It’s scary to think about how public I’ve made this endeavor. I keep reminding myself, “This is important I want to change my life for the better, I can do this.” When I set this gut-wrenching goal like losing a significant amount of weight, there is always going to be emotion. I say go big or go home on this one. Besides, if I fail along the way, I can reflect and figure out a better plan.

Thank you for reading my posts. Writing helps – it’s an outlet for me to explore this process. My wish for you is to celebrate the little things, the big things, and all the things in-between. We are the lucky ones who are working to make a plan for change.

Have you been up at 4:30 am lately? For me, it was rough getting out of the house so early in the morning. Plus, it has finally started to feel like the autumn- which is amazing; except, when it’s 4:30 am! So despite the cold and the dark, with coffee in hand, I made my way to Gold’s Gym:

I was blown away by the encouragement everyone showed me. I carried your words in my heart and had a fantastic experience. The instructor was excellent, the people were really nice, and I got to meet my friend and fellow WW member Jennifer:

When I left the gym, there was a spectacular sky. It was an incredible gift, and I felt very connected to the world and happy:

My parting words for this post are – I’m learning that the in-between needing to lose weight and attaining goal is such an opportunity.  It can be an opportunity for adventure, it can be a revelation, it can be a discovery. One thing I know for certain is that it will be whatever we make of it.

I did something unexpected today.  On my commute home, my sister called and asked me if I’d like to go walking with her. I quickly went home changed and we walked her neighborhood. Her neighborhood is an excellent place to go walking because there are lots of hills (way to get extra fit points). We talked about our days and admired the fun Halloween decorations. My lesson for today, if someone asks you to go outside for a walk – say yes!

So, I have set up a big challenge tomorrow.  I got into the 5:15 am Spin Class I’ve been writing about. I have not made it at that time, not even once yet. I have an after school meeting tomorrow so it’s highly unlikely that I would go tomorrow night. So…

I am one of the lucky 26 people who signed up – will I show? I guess you’ll have to read tomorrow to find out! Your guess is as good as mine…

I saw a Facebook challenge to track your food with pictures. That sounded interesting so here goes… my breakfast, lunch, and dinner in pictures;

Another post I’ve seen on Facebook is, “How do you get in your workouts?” I have to say this one often makes me feel inept because finding time to “get in my workouts” has been really challenging. I started today because Sunday is an easy day to get it in. I went to the 8:30 AM Spin class and I feel really great that I made time to make that happen.

I plan to go Tuesday (5:15 AM) and Thursday (4:30 PM):

Activity is really a good thing.

Have you heard of escape rooms? Today, instead of going out to lunch with friends we went to Padlocked. In an escape room, you are placed in a scenario, given clues, and a time limit to solve little mysteries. It was a blast.

So fun is not overrated, but it did push my Sunday routine back. I went food shopping, prepared dinner, prepped my vegetables, and fruit. I packed breakfast and lunch then pre-tracked it for tomorrow:

I hope you had a great Sunday, and that you did well on plan. Each day we do this is one day closer to getting to goal. More tomorrow…

I lost 4.2 pounds over the last two weeks! I have to say, that does feel really good. I came home and Sadie and I celebratory breakfast:

The only thing that feels better than having a big loss on the scale is having such clarity for my resolve (my why) as I work to get to goal :

I want to lose weight so I will live a fuller life where I look and feel better about who I am in the world. If I get to goal that would mean feeling confident about my appearance. It means being physically able to do more and feel empowered. If I acheive my goal and realize my why that would mean I’ve achieved something that is extraordinary. I believe I can do extraordinary things.

As I reflect on my weight loss this week, my mind is returning back to my meeting. We talked about how it can be discouraging when your efforts are not rewarded on the scale. When you’ve put in the work and somehow you’ve either gained or only lost a small amount of weight. This is very frustrating and I completely empathize with anyone who feels this way.

One of the things we talked about was disempowering the scale, and saying it’s not about the number. On the surface, that does not ring true. I used to think this way, “At the end of the day, we are all there to lose weight, so yes the scale matters.”  My thinking is starting to shift, I’m starting to understand how to disempower the scale. However, please understand, I’m not saying the scale is not important. I would be dealing with upset feelings if I did not have a loss this week. I do want to weigh less this week than last week, and I hope to weight even less next week.

I think that when I only make it about the scale, I am giving up my control. I am working to disempower myself and all that I can do to change my situation. Let’s face it, the reason why I need to lose weight in the first place is complicated, and so losing the weight is also complicated. It’s an open-ended problem that requires a sophisticated response. Whereas, the scale is a very concrete measure of my accomplishments. Here’s the thing though, if I avoid the scale and don’t track my progress I am still making it more powerful than me.

Any narrow lens I use during this process is going to hurt my efforts to get to goal. So, I’m saying, I’m up for the challenge to deal with whatever comes my way. More tomorrow…

Here are some things I try to remember…

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Happy Friday everyone. Tomorrow is my weigh-in day and I am feeling really great about my choices this week. I am so proud that I managed to blog even when WiFi was scarce. I was flexible when my plans went awry and made smart choices that will help me to achieve my future goal.

Sometimes a little imagination makes all the difference:

In the spring there will be beautiful bright yellow daffodils right there. I believe that with time, water, and sun they will bloom. This is true for me, and anyone who is working for a positive change in their lives. Sometimes it is hard to envision the positive changes that will come your way but you just have to believe in the process.

I’ll let you know how I do tomorrow…

PS When you have better choices in the house it’s easier to stay on plan. Look what I threw together:

Thank you for reading and all your support!

How can it be that I’ve been blogging each day for forty days? It seems incredible to me. I find that really look forward to writing these posts they are definitely helping me to stay on track. Taking time out for these daily reflections seems to refocus me in a way that clarifies why I’m doing this.

I had a very long day I went to work, and then attended an after-school professional learning offering in another school district not too far from where I live. I won’t go into all the teacher talk but the focus was on the power of story. It made me think of the many books I’ve introduced my students to in the hopes that these stories would fill their minds and inspire them to grow:

This makes me think about the stories we tell ourselves. Are we mindful to tell ourselves stories that make us feel empowered? Do we tell stories that celebrate our differences?  When we think about doing something really hard, like losing weight, do we tell ourselves stories about being innovative, or smart, or brave? Are we the main characters in our stories, or are we the secondary characters?  What lessons are we learning from the stories we tell ourselves?

I am can do hard things, and I am going to get to gaol. I can find ways to deal with complications. Like today I had to grab a quick dinner, (I counted it at 10sp):

.I can adjust and be flexible and find solutions. I can be part of a supportive community and learn from my mistakes. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

My last words tonight, it doesn’t matter where you are when you start this journey, just start. Start putting yourself first. Start thinking about why you want to lose weight. Start thinking about why you gained weight (I think there is a lot to that). Just start.

Believe that you can do this, and so will I. More tomorrow.