A Week in Review, And It's a Happy One At That!

Well, it's been quite a first week. I count this as my first week because it was full of new goals, such as hitting the treadmill for 30 minutes every morning and starting back on Weight Watchers. I'm happy to have started losing weight way before this week, but I wanted to start a completely new life.

So, here's what I achieved:

1. I DID run/walk/jog every morning (by the way, when I say every morning I mean Monday through Friday, over the weekend I do lots of other workouts that make up for taking a break from the treadmill). I also improved my ability to run seeing as how I can now do so for 22 minutes without my innerself throwing a fit.

2. I DID stay on Weight Watchers successfully. Now, I know it was only the first week, but I'm so happy I stuck with it and am excited to continue. I'll talk more on this subject in a bit (I don't want to get too far off topic at the moment).

3. I DID lose 3ish pounds as of Friday, though I know that's not completely accurate (I'm taking it though!).

4. I DID earn 58, ummm yeah you read that right, 58 activity points for the week! I was so impressed to see that number, it was as if it wasn't even mine. I felt like I was cheering on someone else! :)

And you know what? I'm happy. For the first time in my life I'm on a diet and I'm happy. I know you're not supposed to call it a diet, but I don't think of the negative connotation behind that word and use it with the idea in mind that it's a 'new way of life' diet, not a 'fad' diet. But even when I did WW before, or counted calories before, or anything else I've ever done to try to lose weight, I was almost always unhappy. As a matter of fact, I got down to my lowest weight ever, which was 128, when my hubby and I broke up once before we got married because I was extremely depressed (and in turn not eating, like, at all). But it's the end of the first week and I'm crazily ridiculously insanely HAPPY.

One of the biggest reasons for this happiness is the fact that I'm on Weight Watchers. See, I used WW before to lose weight but once I got down to the 150s-140s range I could no longer follow it because I just COULDN'T eat only the amount of points I was given (which was 20!). As of right now I have 29 points a day, and after reading up a little on their site, I found out that I will never be lower than 29. As a matter of fact, they highly recommend NEVER eating below 29 points a day. That's a LOT of points! That's more than enough to satisfy me for the day because I eat a TON of fruits and veggies, which are all zero points. On the old WW plan, I used to really limit myself from eating very many fruits because I didn't want to add in the extra points. Now if I eat a piece of fruit at every meal, I'm not freaking out.

Also after reading their site, I found out that they also recommend you eat from your weekly points, which is 49, and can be used at any time of the week. I didn't know that! I plan to aim to eat right around the 29, but if I do go over I'm so much less stressed than I was during the last time I was on WW. All those points really take pressure off me - I don't feel like I can NEVER splurge. Friday night, my hubby wanted to get some Dairy Queen. I was kind of worried, because I was right at my 29 points for the day. I looked up the options, chose a butterscotch dilly bar, and ate half (it was worth 3 points that way). Three points over? No big deal!  I could have eaten the entire thing, but I didn't want to trigger a binge. Not to mention, by saving the other half, it gave me a little three point splurge for today. :)

By the way, the site ALSO said that you will still lose weight even if by the end of the week you have eaten all your daily AND weekly points. So, I added them all up and found out that I have 252 points for the WHOLE week which comes to an average of 36 points a DAY!! THAT'S INSANE!!! There's pretty much no way I'll ever actually eat all those points, but the knowledge that I can and will still lose just makes me feel so liberated! I feel so free! Free from worrying about what I'm eating. Free from trying to keep exact track of every single calorie that goes into my mouth.

I also LOVE seeing how many activity points I can rack up. On the old plan, you'd get, like, 2 points for three hours of working out. Ok, maybe that's exaggerating, but I remember it being not even worth the hassle to workout. Now I get 5 points every morning from my half hour on the treadmill. As I said above, I earned 58 activity points this week! It's now a game with myself to see how many I can get!

That leads me into my goals for this week:

1. Run every morning, again the Monday through Friday deal, on the treadmill as usual (I'm not going to add a minute to my running part until I'm completely comfortable with the 24 minutes I do now).

2. Track points each day.

3. Keep up my positive attitude (this week is that dreaded PMS week, and I tend to get angry about my weight and trying to lose it, which in turn leads to binges and skipping workouts).

4. Earn 60 activity points, at least 20 of them being on a bike (any bike - outside, stationary, whatever). I need to really buckle down and ride if I'm going to make it through the MS 150 this year.

5. Get outside for at least one long bike ride (20+ miles), again for the MS 150 training.

I have also decided on another reward. Once I crack the 150s, I'm buying an armband for my iPhone so I don't have to hold it while working out. When I hit 155, I'm buying some new running shoes. I already have a pair, and I like them well enough, but it's time for new ones and it'll be worth it (by the time I reach that goal I'll have lost 11 pounds!). I'm also considering an entire new wardrobe when I hit my goal weight (he he he... my hubby is going to flip about that one. I already have a ton of clothes, most of which are from back when I was 130 pounds a couple years ago, so it's not like I won't fit into any of them).

The one thing I did not accomplish this week was a long bike ride today. It's GORGEOUS out, somewhere in the 70s and sunny, but I didn't get to it. My dad, stepmom, Twig and I went on a ride, but we only went four miles. That's really not what I have in mind as a long ride, but they couldn't make it further than that. Then Twig and I went for a short walk with our dog. We hung around outside for a while and now I'm getting some laundry done. It's just a bunch of excuses, I really should get out there, but oh well.

Well, that's enough of hearing my mouth for the day. Here's to the new week ahead! Have a good one!