My Tips for Staying On Track
Following up with my past entries, I was successful with my weight loss efforts by attending Weight Watchers. With Weight Watchers , one of the most important tools is tracking. I’m a working mother of a toddler, so as you can imagine, my “free time” is nearly nonexistent. So what I found was best for me was planning out what I was going to eat the next day and entering it in my tracker, along with the exercise that I plan on doing. This only takes maybe 5 minutes to enter into your tracker and another 5 to gather what you plan on eating and putting it into a central location. For me I would get my breakfast and lunch together for work the next day. I load up on filling foods for during the workday. Generally these food items don’t have large point values and they hold you over for a while. I tend to save the majority of my daily points for dinner. I enjoy pasta…a lot, so it has always been worth stretching my points to eat what I enjoy. Also with entering in the workout for that day I am less likely to skip working out. This helps me to stay on track with my exercise goals.
I never deprive myself when I want a treat. So yes, there are some days that it is worth the 9 or so points for that Snickers bar. In the long run, those small “cheats” are nothing to punish yourself over. They are all part of the journey and just make you savor them all the more. Since we're being honest...I cheat...A LOT, but then I do a hardcore workout to make it up to myself.
Also its important to "be real" with yourself when it comes to portion sizes. We all have the tendency to fool ourselves that we aren't eating as much as we really are. I know that when I began tracking everything I ate and taking the time to measure and weigh my foods to get true portions, I found I was eating enough points for 3 people! Talk about an eye opener. Once you get past the self embarrassment of how much you're eating and start scaling back your portion sizes the scale will start showing its appreciation. Don't get me wrong, you'll be a little hungry the first week or so, but your stomach will get used to it and so will you.
The last and what I think is the most important is simply being ready to do this for yourself. If you are not mentally there, you could be doing everything else "right" and simply not have it happen the way you think. I had done Weight Watchers around 6 years ago while I was getting ready for my wedding. I lost around 10 pounds, which I am not complaining about, however at that time, to be within the healthy weight ranges, I really needed to lose 30 pounds. I felt happy enough and lets face it 6 years ago I was still in my early 20s and hadn't had the pleasure of being pregnant and having my body make all those nice prenancy changes! SO..Back to my point, I wasn't mentally there, I knew I should lose weight and thought it would be nice to be a bit smaller, but was fairly content with how I looked. Now when I look back I can't say I don't feel proud on my accomplishment of being the smallest I've been in many, many years. This is one of the reasons that I liketo say my thirties are my new twenties because I am 60 plus pounds lighter than I was during all of my twenties. (Yeah me!! Haha)
As you go along with your weight loss you will find what works for you. But, do yourself a favor and keep the junk food out of the house. You aren't doing yourself a favor by thinking you are strong enough to resist. We all have weak moments and you'll have yours too and that junk food you've been so good about resisting will be waiting....calling your name. I know that when I don't get enough sleep those bad food decisions come fast and furious. Before I know it I've hit the vending machine at work and I'm dogging a bag of M&Ms.
I'd love to be here as a support if you need it. Feel free to send me an email if you have a question or if you simply need a "Put the doughnut down" pep talk. I have a support system in place to do it for me!
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