choices
Dear Me…
74 months ago
by Nanci
in #expectamazing, 2013, choices, Dear Me..., food, happy, healthy, meal planning, meeting, scale, strong, track, weigh-in, Weight Watchers 360
Dear Me,
Just 5 days ago, on New Years Eve, you decided to make a fresh start and go back to Weight Watchers. The minute you went back, you changed your mindset, knowing that doing this for the fifth time meant you had to give it more than the four last times. You had to commit to it like you did the first time you did it – and succeeded.
Since Tuesday, you’ve made your breakfast every day, you’ve upped your water, you made your lunch, included fruits or vegetables in each meal, and even enjoyed a meal out last night. It’s all about making the right choices.
On Thursday, you forgot your lunch. It would have been so easy to not worry about it and just have something else. But something inside made you get back in the car and drive home to get it. That is commitment.
In making the decision to go back to Weight Watchers, you realized that for this to work, you would have to go back to Saturday meetings. Saturday’s are your day, no work or problems coming at you from all angles that interfere with a meeting. You won’t sit through the meeting feeling guilty about the fact that you should be at work or doing about 50 other important things. You know that to succeed, you need to do what works. Don’t set yourself up to fail. Go back to what worked the first time – Saturday morning meetings.
This morning you got up and went to the 6:45 meeting since you decided Saturday will be your regular meeting day. Since you weighed in just 5 days ago and it’s still technically the same week, you had an unofficial weigh-in. That unofficial weigh-in has now set the tone for the weekend and week to come. You know what you need to do and keep doing it. Why? Because you lost 3.2 pounds in 5 days. You didn’t starve, you didn’t feel like you were missing out on anything, you didn’t feel deprived. You jumped back in full steam, tracked every bite you took, measured all your food, and gave it your all.
So anytime you think you can’t do it, remember this. Remember this feeling of being in control, of not letting your body win. You don’t have to be that person who feels so uncomfortable in your skin. That’s not you. Remember, you are stronger than you know. You, my dear, can #ExpectAmazing this year. The proof was on the scale this morning.
Love,
Me
True Confessions Tuesday
110 months ago
It has been a long time since I’ve done a True Confessions post, since April 10, to be exact. Which means, I have A LOT to confess to! Let’s start with these…
- I CONFESS I have just gotten back into what I hope is a regular routine for working out. I don’t know why I let myself slip so badly. Despite the guilt I feel in not doing it, it still isn’t enough sometimes to get me moving again. I wish I could figure it out.
- I CONFESS I need to make changes to my eating as well. Some aspects of it are good – I’m drinking a lot of water and eating a lot of fruits and veggies. My biggest downfall is portion control. I am still trying to be that person who doesn’t have to be on a “diet” or specific weight loss program. Clearly that isn’t working for me, but I am determined to somehow figure out a happy medium and make better choices.
- I CONFESS that I am highly frustrated with myself and my lack of motivation over the last several months. I set a goal for myself to log 600 miles on dailymile running and walking for the year and I am WAY off where I should be at this point. But beating myself up over it isn’t going to help it, so I just need to keep it up and make up for lost time.
- I CONFESS that I am not a fan of riding a bike, I really just DON’T like it. But, I have been thinking about it lately, that it may be good to add to my routine. And I’m not sure what I think will be different about it this time than in the past. I can walk for hours and not feel winded or out of shape, but if I ride a bike for 15 minutes, I’m done. And I hate that.
- I CONFESS that I have gotten lost in my brain far too many times this past week. I get anxious at times and then I start to think things and it’s a downward spiral from there and before I know it, I’m lost in my brain. It’s the reason I wrote the letter to myself on Sunday. I have to dig myself out before I am too far gone sometimes. It’s best for my overall wellness.
Yep, no shortage of confessions in my world today. I hope that saying these out loud (so to speak) will help keep me a little more accountable to myself.
A Letter To Myself
10Dear me,
You are a wonderful person and you are stronger than you know. You take care of those you love and you do the best that you can in everything you do.
So then, why do you doubt yourself? Why do you feel like you can always do more or do better? Why do you feel so fragile? You cannot let fear and your insecurities get the best of you. You must not focus on the negatives, but rather direct that energy to all the positives in your life. Letting the negatives get the best of you only sends your fragile state of mind reeling.
You know how good you feel when you do something for yourself, when you put yourself first. You seem to fall into the trap of not taking care of yourself when you are stressed out. There will always be something stressful going on, you have to decide how best to manage that stress and not let it get the best of you.
Yesterday, you made the decision to go for a walk and that walk turned into running. You ran when you felt like it and walked when you needed to. After not running for far too many weeks, you did pretty good despite the heat. You should not be so hard on yourself and just enjoy the moment.
Do you remember how you felt when you ran your first half-marathon? You felt like you could do anything – and you can. You have the ability to accomplish anything you set your mind to. It’s the reason you signed up for another half-marathon, to feel that enormous sense of accomplishment in completing something you never thought you would do.
If you are not happy about how you feel or how you look, YOU are the only one who can do something about it, YOU are the only one who can make the right choices and change. You’ve done it before, you can do it again.
Life is too short to be stressed out about things. You cannot control everything and there is no sense in worrying about the things that you know are out of your control. Focus on YOURSELF and the rest will fall into place.
Love,
Yourself
Start-Over Sunday
0Finally, after a week since my last run, I got one in this morning. Time was a luxury that I just did not have this week and with the time change, the sun was coming up too late for me to squeeze a run in before work. This morning’s run was a reminder of how much I enjoy running in the morning, the beautiful sun, the rested feeling I have instead of the tired, dragging feeling I have after work, and the sound of the birds at the park. As I expect this week to be the same as last and expect there will not be a lot of running time, I made sure to enjoy every minute of this one.
This never gets old...
I have some paperwork to do today from last week, laundry, making slow cooker chicken for dinner, please-oh-please let there be time to read and take a nap, and I am going to get my snacks ready for the week. The more prepared I am for the week, the better I will be in rushed situations. The last couple of weeks, I have let my busy days influence my eating and it has not been the best.
So, I am considering this to be “Start-Over Sunday“. Drink more water, get back to healthy choices for my snacks, more protein and less carbs, be more accountable for my actions, track everything I eat, and to quit making excuses. If I can attempt to do this now, before tomorrow and the craziness of the week ahead, I may have a fighting chance.
How do you use your Sunday to prepare for the week ahead?
Just breathe…
21 year ago
What a week this has been. It’s been busy, crazy, overwhelming, and I was not at my best when I caved into the evilness of the Pizza Hut Dinner Box on Monday. I still say it was DE-LISH but it has had me stressing over my weigh-in this week.
This morning was my weigh-in and my moment of truth. Let me start by saying that I wasn’t as fearful of the scale this morning as I was earlier in the week when thinking about it. I own everything I do and eat, so there is no one to blame but myself for a gain. I am accountable for anything I do. And a gain this week would CLEARLY have been from the evil pizza/breadsticks/cinamonn sticks. There are times when the thought of seeing a gain due to a really bad meal will stop me from that meal, it’s enough for me to make better choices. There are times when I just don’t care, or I care less at that moment.
With that said, I weighed in this morning at the EXACT same weight as last week. I maintained. And I couldn’t be happier about it. Whew!
Yesterday was a hard day. Without getting into it just now, just know that had it not been the day before weigh-in, I would have eaten everything in site and probably would have thrown in a few drinks as well. Somehow this morning’s weigh-in outweighed (no pun intended) the emotional eating that I could have very easily given into. That’s my thing, emotional eating. Stressed, upset, scared, hurt, you name it – it sends me straight to the nearest food or snack or drink that is bad for me.
Today starts a new week, with new choices to make. I’ve already indulged in a McD’s lunch because I have the extra points for it, and that’s what they’re there for. It’s all a balance of not depriving myself and choosing what to have and if it’s worth the consequences. Today it’s worth it.
Just breathe will be my mantra today and in the coming days.
What a great tattoo!
