Staying Focussed, WI (UPDATE)

I have, in my long life, tried to lose weight "for ever" countless times.  Every single time, whether I got to within two or three pounds of my goal weight or whether my "diet" lasted only until breakfast of the first day, I have ultimately been side tracked by something and regained the pounds.  I got pregnant (and gained  60 pounds).  My best friend moved away and I was very sad.  I wrenched my ankle and couldn't run. My husband was away on deployment and I was lonely.  I had a very stressful situation at work and my co-worker kept open containers of cashews and Lindt truffles on her desk.  My mother died.

The last time I decided to lose weight, I decided it would be forever.  I chose my plan.  Weight Watchers.  I enlisted my DH to join with me.  I promised myself I would not give up.  Ever.  That was in March 2008.  I lost 50 pounds by December.  On the day I reached minus 50 pounds, my Dad had a massive stroke.  I was the point person (the only child within 3 states). I had to make all the decisions, medical and financial.  It was very hard.  I tried to hold the line on my weight.  I weighed myself every morning.  I tried to keep up my exercise routine.  My weight started creeping up.  I regained 40 pounds by the next December.  I kept going to WW.  I kept running (although much more slowly as the pounds piled on).  I tried to get my momentum restarted in January.  It worked for a month and then we had a monster snow storm and I couldn't leave the house (to shop or exercise) for more than a week.  I backslid and regained the several pounds I'd re-lost.  I never did regain the final 10 pounds and that was important to me.  I kept up the exercise.  I kept going to WW.  Finally in May I got my momentum back.  I restarted the C25K.  I re-read my WW materials.  I started this blog.  I got intentional about the details.  Drinking water.  Measuring portions. Doing both cardio and strength exercises. Eating more slowly.  Eating "clean."  Eating more fish.  Limiting starchy carbs to one a day. I started losing.  I've lost just about 30 pounds since the beginning of May.  The rate is slowing down a bit.  But I think I've found my way.  I'm staying focussed.  For LIFE.

Here are some tools I use to help me stay focussed.

         1.  I keep a journal.  I record my weight, morning and evening.  Every day.  I KNOW that if I don't record these, I gain.  I will do this for ever.  When I reach my goal, it will help me see when I need to work so I don't exceed my "scream weight."  I like knowing my patterns (I always gain after Thai food, I gain after popcorn, those gains go away after two days). I also use it to record my measurements, my daily exercise, and to record notes or thoughts I have about the process.

  

         2.  I log my daily weight on physics diet.  This is new to me, but I love it.  It averages my weight       over the past several days so that small ups and downs don't have such prominence.  It's a realistic visual of "how I'm doing." This is especially nice during the losing phase, I'm not sure if I'll continue when I reach my ultimate goal.

3. I track my running on Nike+, using my ipod.  I like visuals and love seeing the miles pile up.

4.  I log my official WI weights on the WW site.  It has a good graphic that shows me where I am in relation to when I first started, 2 1/2 years ago.

UPDATE:  Oh and don't forget this fun one which is the automatic update from my gym:

These are my main tools for staying focussed.  I need to do this to keep myself going.  At my WI today, I stayed the same.  Not the worst news, but not what I really wanted either.  My tools, though, show me that I'm doing well. I had my lowest morning weight in well over a year this morning.  I reached a new green low on my physics diet chart and the trend is still definitely down.  I'm keeping up with my running.  And I'm slowly but surely approaching my low of two years ago on my WW chart.  

All those kinds of pesky things that got in my way before might still happen (except, praise God,  getting pregnant!), but this time, they're not going to derail my progress.  

How do you keep yourself focussed when things go astray?

179.0

Joie de Vivre

E=Joie de Vivre

Little E will begin a two-day-a week preschool next week. I think she's a tiny bit anxious, but mostly she's very happy and excited about it. I took this picture yesterday when I had the children outside.  The weather was beautiful.  E was pulling a mostly deflated, red Trader Joe's balloon on a long red ribbon round and round the big garden bed.  J, who took his first steps only weeks ago was toddling as fast as he could after her, trying to get the balloon. They were both laughing and giggling. I aspire to E's joie de vivre.  Joyful is good.

I had a great ride this morning. I rode from home to Mount Vernon along the Mount Vernon Bike Trail.  The last mile or so has a few serious hills, but I was able to ride all the way.  I have a membership card to Mt Vernon and, after locking my bike, I took a nice walk through the grounds. I've been in the house recently, so this time, taking advantage of the great weather, I spent my time in the gardens.  I started back and was amused to see that going the other direction bicyclists are advised to dismount because of the steep downhill.  No.Way!  I earned that downhill part. :D  I turned off the trail to make my way home through a park and some pretty neighborhoods.  I went 17+ miles overall.  It felt great.  Oh, and I wore my snazzy bike shoes with no problems.


Tomorrow I want to get in a long-ish run in the morning. Then, at 11, I'm going to try out a yoga for beginners class. I have done some yoga with my Wii, but think I could benefit from a real live teacher.  The class is free with our gym membership. DH was going to come too, but he's doing pro-bono legal work through a DC  church.

I've started logging my daily weight on physics diet. You may know that I weigh myself every morning and record the weight in my journal.  Minor ups and downs are normal, but I'd read about averaging the weights to get a moving average that shows you more accurately how you're doing. Here's my graph for the past 10 days or so.  You can see clearly the red parts that represent our days on our Bike Holiday.  Red is not good. Those are days when my weight is above the projected loss trend.  The green parts are days when I'm at or below the trend for weight loss. Green is good. I look forward to accumulating lots of green chart territory ahead. Interestingly, your individual weight doesn't have to be lower than the previous day's weight to be in the green territory. 


Hope your weekend is filled with joy!

Coming Down from the Mountain

I'll try to keep this short(er) today. We slept late-ish today and, after our Starbucks lattes and strawberries & cereal breakfast, we headed up to Rocky Mountain NP. Both of us finally felt that we'd overcome the lack of energy caused by the high altitude. We consulted with a ranger and decided to do a 6 mile hike, with a 560 elevation gain, to Cub Lake. The climb happened in the first 2.3 miles of the hike and took us a long while. Once we reached the lake, the downward 3.5 miles went fairly quickly. Great views, some new (for me) birds, including the mountain bluebird, and a fun time. We again had our picnic lunch along the way and had lots of water. It was a challenge, but I felt great afterwards and am glad we did it. I'm in love with the Aspen trees. We don't have these birch-like trees in Virginia, but they are graceful and beautiful to look at. The other predominant tree in RMNP is the Lodgepole Pine. Unfortunately, in the park, as well as in several other western states they are under serious attack by a pine bark beetle which is fast killing great numbers of them.

Tomorrow we will drive across the park and head on down to Colorado Springs. DH's conference starts tomorrow evening and I'm sure I can find ways to entertain myself for a couple of days. I seriously need to get a run in--my running shoes are going to sue for abandonment. Tomorrow is supposed to be my WI day, but it looks like I'll probably go on Thursday, instead, because we won't roll into town until mid afternoon. I'm really hoping that I lose well this week. I miss having my scale along to keep an eye on things. For me, when I stop weighing myself every day, it means I'm avoiding acknowledging gaining.

I know people have different approaches to weighing. Do you weigh yourself every day?