WW - Week... I can't remember how many.

It's been a rough couple of weeks. I've been up and down on the scale. My lazy tendencies have caught up with me. I'll tell ya what! If you don't plan, it is awfully hard to eat healthfully. I've had a hard time being motivated to really follow the WW program but I've noticed there are a lot of little changes that have occurred in my habits. I'm more cognizant of how much water I'm drinking, how many fruits/vegetables I'm eating, how much calcium I'm getting, etc and making a more concerted effort. If I do eat fast food I no longer eat ALL of the french fries. Little things make little differences.

Every Friday morning at 7am for the past 2 months I've been at my WW meeting. I love my meetings. The leader and all the members are hilarious and so fun. I really look forward to going. Well, yesterday morning I slept right through my alarm and I was SO SAD! I mean, I don't particularly look forward to getting weighed but I love the camaraderie and the inspiration I get each week. I know attending meetings and the weekly weigh in are so important so this morning after running I went to a meeting (and good news, it was my Friday morning leader who I love!) and got weighed in.

How'd it go? I'm down 5 lbs this week!

health nut

T minus ONE WEEK! until I'm on that plane. Can't wait. Can't concentrate on anything else.

In order to make this trip even more incredible that it already will be I will need to be in peak physical form! So my goals for the next seven days include:

• no soda. NONE! (I'm saving up for euro sodas woot!)
• no fast food
• drink absurd amounts of H2O
• exercise everyday
• run 15 miles min
• get 7+ hours of sleep per night
• meticulously count points
• take a multivitamin everyday (or at least think about it)

Speaking of multivitamins... Do I really need one? For some (unwarranted) reason I'm skeptical. What do you think? Do you take one? What kind?

Also... exercising on vacation. I should be seriously training for Wasatch Back during these next few weeks but I'LL BE ON VACATION!! Do I really want to wake up early every day to go running? Do I want to pack my exercise clothes? I should but have I mentioned that I'LL BE ON VACATION! Doesn't that imply vacation from exercise as well? This is quite the conundrum for me.

ran.dom.

well let's just get this out of the way first of all. ww-week 4. up 3.7lbs. i don't even want to talk about it. ok, yes i do. i had an ok week. not the best, not the worst. i blame my big gain entirely on being a girl, if you know what i mean. so fingers crossed for a huge loss next week to make up for this week (or else i'll be pissed). needless to say, i'm depressed.

i'm heading to utah in 2 hours. i registered for the slc 1/2 marathon months ago. i booked a flight weeks ago. factor in no training, lots of good stuff going on in vegas and 1/2 my fam leaving ut for the weekend and i big time struggled with the decision to go or not to go. each side had a valid arguement so 12 hrs before my flight i was still undecided. i started packing just in case. arranged for my pops to pick me up from the airport. still undecided. but this morning i said- why the hell not. utah here i come. dear 1/2 marathon, please don't kill me.

this week has been a sort of spiritual awakening for me. maybe awakening is too strong of a word but i had countless gentle reminders that i need to get myself better aligned with the spirit. it was a week in stark contrast to my weekend which, while outrageously fun, was not spirit filled (more on this in a future post with pictures). i finally listened to general conference. just listening to it reminded me that i love feeling the spirit. realized that pres. monson's stories aren't just stories, they are stories of real people. i went to institute and was taught the importance of loving that which is holy- the scriptures, the temple, the sacrament. i went to a stake r.s. training last night. not much training but lots of love and encouragement. remembered that i need to love my girls (not hard most of the time) and show them that i love them (hard most of the time). i felt the weight of my calling to a degree i haven't felt in a while. overwhelming. time to get off of autopilot (again).

consumer and i booked our flights to europe yesterday. leaving in less than a month, staying for 2 weeks. i should be super excited about this but i've been stressed about it all. the money. missing work. leaving my calling. etc. hopefully as our departure date gets closer i'll be more pumped. it's europe after all! going to all the same places i've already been which is fine but sad that i'm not going anywhere new. guess that's what next year is for. the itin is- rome, venice, paris, london, edinburgh, dublin. actually, this is going to be amazing. i'm brushing up on le francais.

have an awesome weekend everyone!

WW-Week 3

Down one more pound this week!

WW- Week 2

Luck. It had to be luck this week. There's no logical reason behind the weight loss. My fam was in town all weekend and we ate out once or twice a day. I tried to make good choices but I also used the excuse that it was the weekend and a special weekend because I was with family so it didn't matter if I counted points or not. So I didn't. But come tuesday morning I began to worry a little about how fast friday morning was coming so I tried really hard to have 3 good days following the 3 bad days. I like to think I was shocking my body into losing weight by mixing things up a bit. Well, it worked. As I stepped on the scale this morning I was just hoping for any tiny loss or at least to stay the same. But! I'm down 2.6lbs this week!

A HUGE THANK YOU goes out to everyone who has been so supportive! You have no idea how much your encouragement means to me. No idea.

weight watchers - week 1

I did it. I joined weight watchers*. Although I don't care to admit it, I have what some might consider a "weight problem" (I really tried to find the Chris Farley SNL video clip of him as Bennett Brauer but to no avail... it's so funny). I don't consider myself obese but I am definitely NOT at my ideal weight. I'm physically healthy and active. I can still buy clothes at (most) regular clothing stores. However, that doesn't mean that I'm at a healthy weight for my height and body type. And it also doesn't mean that I'm happy with what I see when I look in the mirror. I've always tried to imagine what I'd look like with a flat stomach, toned arms and slender thighs. Dreams... And I'm not going to lie when I tell you that I honestly believe that every single problem in my life (emotional, physical, financial- no I'm not exaggerating, etc) would disappear if I was at my goal weight. It's not at all rational but that's how my brain works. OK... sorry... I feel like I'm just rambling here.

The point is- I need to lose weight. I want to lose weight.

My friend had motivated me (though her example) to not only get up at 5am 2+ days a week to go to the gym (seriously this is HUGE for me) but to join WW with her. I've been thinking about it for months but haven't had the courage to go on my own. So last week we joined and this morning was our first weigh in. Before I get to the results I'll just tell you that I love going to the meetings. The people there are great (I'm pretty sure I burned 200 calories this morning just from laughing) and I always feel so motivated to be healthy. I'll also tell you that changing my eating habits this last week took a lot of planning. I wasn't perfect. I went over my allotted points a few of the days. I didn't eat as many vegetables or drink as much water as I should have. But I ate so much more healthfully than I have in months. I totally cut out fast food. I actually ate vegetables. I drank tons of water. I did pretty well, even if I do say so myself. It was a struggle at times to walk away from the extra dessert I didn't need or to say no to my 3rd serving of funeral potatoes (my very favorite food in the whole world). But I felt healthier and happier. I'm ready to do even better this upcoming week.

So... how'd I do?

I lost 7.4 lbs!! Woot!! Granted, most people see a big loss the first week of WW but still, I'm SO HAPPY!! I thought I was crazy last night when I thought my shorts fit better than they did last week when I put them on but now it makes sense why. This big loss isn't going to be typical of my WW experience. I don't expect it to. But, I know if I stay on track and plan well then I will be able to achieve my goal weight. Slow and steady wins the race.

*I had a 2 month stint with WW a few years ago where I lost a grand total of 9 lbs then gave up. I got lazy and discouraged when I wasn't losing weight even when I ate crap.