the chronicles of my journey to a thinner me

My Progress
my-calorie-counter.com    The webs free Diet Diary
Mini Goal - One-derland

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Weight Watchers Success and Props to My Peeps

I've had several people ask me lately how I'm losing weight. There's always someone that when I say WW, they roll their eyes and say, "I've tried that. It didn't work."

I can relate. I did it once before in the late 80's and lost weight pretty fast for several weeks and then lost interest. So what's different this time around?

For one thing, this time I was inspired by reading the blogs of some really cool ladies that lost large amounts of weight with WW -
Gettin' Shrunk, Angie All the Way, and Mousearoo to name a few. They offered me something that I desperately needed - HOPE. I read their stories (all the way back from the beginning) and looked at the pictures, and for the first time I actually could envision myself losing 100 pounds. It never even occurred to me that it was possible before. The most I was even aiming for was maybe 20 or 30 pounds because 100 just seemed like too much to hope for - until I saw the proof right there in front of me. They also made me want to blog. I knew that it would help me to be accountable and stay interested.

From there, I found other blogs. I started commenting, which led to people commenting back in return as well as new people following the comment back to me. I never imagined how much the support of my new blogging friends would come to mean to me. Just knowing that there are people that actually care enough to read what I write and to leave comments motivates me to try my hardest. The encouragement I receive is just invaluable.

From my blogger idols, I learned to set goals - and break them down into smaller, easier to achieve goals. This has helped me tremendously. Trying to lose 100 pounds is HUGE. Trying to lose 10 is something I can look in the eye.

I also learned about all kinds of new and exciting food from reading blogs. Thanks to Angie we're using Almond Breeze in place of the more expensive and (I feel) less healthy cow or soy milk. I learned about barley and quinoa, and the wonders of brown rice.

I learned that the successful WW'ers are pretty faithful with food journaling and keeping up with AP's and Flex. I learned that not eating enough food can really REALLY result in weight gain or plateau. I mean, really, I'd heard that before but I didn't believe it until the people I believed in told me their real, true stories.

I have learned so much from blogs, blogging, and the web in general. If someone were to ask me what the most important weight loss tool in my arsenal is, I'd have to say 'an internet connection'.

So thank you my friends for never failing to teach and inspire me.

Here's a list of some other helpful hints
How to Make Weight Watchers Work for You.

HYC Week 30 Check In & Goals

Weight: 203 Check out the new trophy in my case!

Hello all!

I am back after a long, and much needed, break. More about that in another post. Suffice it to say that I am refocused and ready to get back to work and get serious about knocking off my remaining 60 pounds.

One thing I have learned from experience is that my success is dependent upon setting achievable goals that I know will get me where I want to go. Otherwise, I'm just wandering aimlessly, getting nowhere really.

Here are my HYC Goals for Week 30:











GoalStatus
Water 64+ oz 7/70/7
Journal food 7/70/7
Stay on plan 7/70/7
Run 30 min per day 4/40/4
Earn 25 AP's 25/250/25
Take vitamins 7/70/7
5 fruits/veg 4/40/4
Pushup Challenge 3/30/3
200 Crunches 200/2000/200


This sounds like a lot, but it should be achievable. I often find that I do better when I have more to do than when I have less to do. Is that strange?

Anyway, my real focus is to stick to these goals with the hope of hitting 199 over the next 2 weeks. I think that's realistic. I guess we'll see.

I may be posting daily achievements to keep me on track and accountable. That's helped me in the past.

Can't wait to catch up on all of your blogs.

Monday, July 28, 2008

I've been on a break...

As you may have noticed (I hope anyway!), I have been away for a while.

It started when I took the week of July 4th off from work. I haven't been blogging or consistently counting/journalling points since then.

Everything is still going well (check my tickers and stats!) and I have been keeping up with the exercising - I can run 40 minutes without stopping and I can run about 2.5 miles now.

I will be getting back to counting points, journalling food, setting goals, and blogging starting with tomorrow's HYC check in.

I can't wait to catch up on what everyone is doing, I've missed you all terribly. I just needed some time away from having my entire life focused on the mechanics of weight loss. I am now ready to jump back in and tackle my remaining 60 pounds.

More tomorrow...