Week 30 of Maintenance...I earned a bead for my bracelet!!
Week 5 of the Winter Challenge...hmmmm...don't really feel like I "deserve" to say I completed it but I'm hanging on...
118.4 at meeting
113.8 at home - clean weight
So, I survived Christmas but not New Year's. Or maybe the Christmas treat-eating caught up with me since I haven't been able to do my normal amount and quality of activity. Winter is officially here with gray skies, cold north winds, and damp temperatures that seem to sink right into my bones.
I was doing ok on the treadmill for a few days...maybe a week...but I'm REALLY missing the sunshine and being outside! I ordered a "light therapy" light from Costco and am hanging on til it gets here. The first sunny day we have, I'm going to spend as much of it outside as possible...find a spot out of the wind and just SOAK it up!
I guess what scares me the most is that I KNOW how the winter weight gain starts and I KNOW how it progresses and I KNOW how hard it is to fight against it and I KNOW how hard it is to resist treat foods and I KNOW how hard it is to get my daily activity (which I NEED!!) when all I want to do is stay in bed, or if I make it out of bed, to sit on the couch in front of the warm woodstove and watch old movies all day...while giving in to too much treat food or even just regular food, above and beyond the calories that I'm burning, which are minimal!!!
This past week, THIS is how it starts. And now I've got to summon strength, determination, willpower, knowledge, common sense and every tool in my tool chest to not have this winter be a repeat of last winter and the one before that and the one before that x 4.
The good part...holiday treats are almost gone. The bad part...everything else.
Hopefully this light therapy light will help. Petey will be home for all of January and probably February as he waits to be called for upgrade school. As nice as that is, he's a snacker and the suggestion of food and eating is more visible...more I have to resist.
I'm making a list of healthy foods that I really LOVE to eat...ones where I can have a large serving for minimum points...ones that SEEM to be fun, snacky foods to me...that will satisfy the desire for snacky when I really want snacky!
I know that every Weight Watchers meeting will have a subject that is spot-on for helping me through these next 2 months. I know that I WILL weigh myself every night, no matter what! I WILL keep tracking and measuring and doing my best to make healthy choices.
It always surprises me to discover just how much I depend on an above-average amount of activity to burn off what I normally eat. And how quickly I drop to a below-average amount of activity once cold weather hits. Or gray weather...or cold gray weather!
Going in to winter I think "this isn't going to be too bad! I'll just do this and this and this and this and it'll be fine!". That worked for December...now I have to figure out a way to make it through January and February. The thought of strictly denying myself for the next 8 weeks sounds daunting, if not impossible. I need to figure out something else!
Oh well...here's my chance to really put my Weight Watchers know-how to the test. I had a few failures today but also a few successes...and tomorrow is another day!
