Damage Control

December 8th Weigh In: -0.4 lbs.
Total Weight loss: 35.2 lbs
Weight: 249.0 lbs

I've been at this plateau for some time now. I would say that I've stayed at the same weight for almost two whole months...until now...

December 15th Weigh In: +6.4 lbs.
Total Weight loss: 28.8 lbs
Weight: 255.4 lbs

Yes. You read that correctly. I gained almost 10 pounds in one week.

I have plenty of excuses: It was that time of the month. I had McDonald's (large fries included) twice that week. I went to an awesome cookie party. I made a lot of cookies for this party and sampled many of them. I went to the Christmas party for work at Bourbon and drank many sugary pineapple and Malibu's as well as roughly 3 shots/bombs. (If we are facebook friends there is a nice photo of me carrying a drink in an unorthodox place, check it out) I think a lot of the gain is water/bloating weight because I had way too much salt that week.

I kept telling myself this is the last day. I'll eat like shit and then hop right back on the wagon. Then I'd made another bad choice and say the same thing, I'll only be bad today, and it kept happening each day. So instead of just letting a bad day be one day and moving on, I let a bad day become a bad week. I know I haven't posted since Nov. 28th but before last week I was at least maintaining my losses.

I think a big problems is that lately I've just been powerless to the deliciously stick in your teeth wonderfulness that is Milk Duds. Hot damn do I love me some Milk Duds.

I wish this picture wasn't eerily similar to the amount I have actually consumed

So thanks to some tough love (my sister reminding me, daily and not so subtly, that I haven't been to the gym in quite some time) I realized that I can not let this slip up ruin the progress I've made so far.

I've let a lot of things that shouldn't matter change my point of view. I thought that if I changed programs I would find faster and better results. I saw a co worker lose a lot in a small amount of time and it was discouraging. In a month they lost what it has taken me 8 months to lose. It wasn't fair and the plateau wasn't helping my state of mind. So I stopped working my plan. I stopped going to meetings, stopped tracking, continued to not go to the gym, and spent time researching what worked for them. I gradually started to eat like I used to, before April, before Tri training, and kept telling myself that it didn't matter because when I start this new awesome plan it won't matter because the weight will just melt off.

Well, the plan was a bit too hard for me to follow. I didn't even start it actually. I knew I wouldn't be able to sustain the plan anyway, not realistically.

I like to have the flexibility that Weight Watchers offers and if I'm totally honest after a few weeks of plateauing my discouragement turned into me not really following the plan 100% and tracking faithfully.

So here's the deal: I would really like to be at -40lbs by year's end. I know -50lbs is just plain impossible. Really, -40lbs might be unrealistic too, but it's a goal nonetheless. Ah hell, I'd be happy just to end the year making up the 6.4 gain I've had. Regardless of goals and numbers I've made a bit of progress that I'm really happy about, slip up and all...

-I went down a size in jeans (I'm trying to be okay with it only being one size for a 30 pound loss)

-In Old Navy sizes I am officially no longer a XXL. I actually put a pair of XL pj pants on OVER my jeans.

-I bought and wore a smoking hot Red Dress from Old Navy (Size:XL) to the Xmas party at work. I think wearing that dress was the first time I ever looked at myself and thought, 'Wow this actually looks pretty great on me'. I got a lot of very flattering comments on it. If anyone wants to take me out, I'm looking for any reason to wear it again!

 

 

-I have gotten back into the gym and it feels great. I don't know why I stopped going. I really need to get over my chronic laziness.

I really have a great support system of friends and family and I'm going to utilize them more for the rest of this year and for the rest of my weight loss journey. I'm also going to try to blog more and not let my laziness/ashamed of gainsness keep me from updating. I've had a lot of restarts and "new plans" so I'm just gonna start real basic and work my way up. No crazy plans that involve multiple workouts per day or weird food plans. Just me, following my WW plan/tracking, and being active for at least 35 minutes a day and working my way up to bigger and better things.

I can do this and in August I will be doing the Sprint Triathlon and I will be jogging the whole 3 miles and I will be kicking ass and taking names.

For now, I'm just doing a bit of damage control.