Christy: Week 9

Ahhh, Sunday...The end to a very busy weekend that held many opportunities to stray from my weight loss goals. The first temptation occurred when my daugter & I went out to eat after seeing the Cuyahoga Valley Youth Ballet. So many choices...do I choose a burger? do I have a soda? We decided to split a Hummus veggie wrap (minus the onions) and I had water while she had her first Shirley Temple. Later that same night I attended a girls night out where each of us brought an appetizer. Turned out almost of the attendees brought dessert! Mint this, fudge that, cream this...yikes! I knew if I had one I'd be going down the slippery slope. So, I had none! I did however have a few extra chips n cheese dip that I brought but didn't over do it! I also chose to bring flavored ice tea that was 35 calories as opposed to an alcoholic beverage. So glad I did because nothing I ate or drank made an impact on how much I enjoyed the night and I felt good the next morning! And here I am at today...St. Patrick's day! I ate light the whole day because I knew I had delicious corned beef & cabbage in the crock pot for dinner and the beer was a flowing early on! I stopped by a friend's jewelery party and while I sampled everything, I didn't pig out! See a theme developing? That guacamole was soooo goood tooo...but alas, here I a, didn't over do it and I feel great!  I feel like I've been able to "live my usual life" and yet be responsible for my eating behaviors. Ok, I am staying realistic and I know that I may not pass every temptation that comes my way...but I know it is possible. And the more I "pass" these tests, the more my confidence builds and my weight loss stays on track!

Last week I toyed with the idea of bringing my son to the gym with me 3 days instead of the usual 2. I mentioned last week too that the new tot room care taker is terrific! Turns out that my son asked me every day last week if he could go to the tot room. He absolutely loves playing with the care taker and she adores him right back! Its one of the most quality hours of his day (yeah, she's really that great).  As a result, I feel so much freer to concentrate on a thorough workout and I'm going to keep on taking him as long as he wants to go also! This feeling on his part may not last forever so I'm taking advantage of it to further my journey while I can!

Last week I also saw some great numbers on the scale...one of them was my goal weight! However, when I weighed in this morning had a loss of 1.5 lbs putting me at 151.5.  I wouldn't be surprised if tonight's beers did a little damage but.... I continue to feel confident in maintaining the areas I've changed. I am focused on being able to do what I want to do-within balance & reason-in terms of eating/drinking. The actual weight I'm losing is coming off a little slower these last few weeks. I am suspecting it is a variety of reasons which include: being bored at times with working out, feeling a little cocky at times which causes me to splurge more than I have a craving to, and feeling that since I'm so close to my goal weight I should concentrate on maintaining & not losing.
Perhaps there are other factors and influences and I have yet to uncover such as stress. Stress usually ebbs & flow so while it may account for a fluke week, I don't agree it's a main culprit in the month of March. I'm probably over thinking this stage of my journey! I am hoping to move past these last few pounds, meet my goal, and figure out where I go from there!
Week 9 is more of the same...exercise 5 days a week, incorporating a strengthening routine of arms, back, butt, legs, abs, keeping my weight lighting Wednesdays but running 1 mile prior to lifting, increasing my cardio such that I'm burning 400 calories instead of 300.
While I do not have any regrets this week, if I had to name one it would be the regret of permitting stress to take over in the form of being irritated about things I have no control over. I can already tell that this week is going to have it's share of irritating instances.  Just take a deep breath and push through! My goals are important and I want to reach them!