Weekly Weigh-In #16 (week of 4/23-4/29)

My day started out a bit rough as I realized half-way between my house and my Weight Watchers meeting, I had forgotten my water bottle at home. I go to a meeting that is closer to my job than it is to my home, so driving all the way home would have been a hassle for me -- not to mention a waste of fuel/money. So I opted to miss my WW meeting this morning in order to turn around to get my water bottle because I simply cannot go a day without having my water bottle or cup on me at all times.

The good news is that I lost weight this week! The receptionist told me how much I lost when I got on the scale and, while I really wish she hadn't, it was nice to know I had gone down 2.4lbs. For me, it's hard for me to know when I lose weight during weeks when I'm not following the plan 110% or even 100% because I feel it's encouraging bad behaviors. Thankfully the bad habits that I've gotten into this week are ones that are easily fixed so I can shake the habits quickly (hopefully).

For example, I keep snacks upstairs in my bedroom where there are out of sight but readily available to me. Granted, they're single-serving snacks but when I'm not doing well emotionally/mentally, it's very easy for me to eat more than just ONE bag of chips or more than ONE mini snack bar. I come home late at night and there's no one around to keep me in check as far as how many snacks I eat when I get home. Therefore, last night I rearranged a few things in my mom's kitchen so that I could store my snacks in my cupboard space downstairs. Since I get home late at night when everyone is sleeping, I'll have to decide which snack(s) I want to enjoy for the evening before I retire to my bedroom for the evening. This way, I won't go back downstairs for another snack for fear of waking up someone else in the house (or worse, the family dog).

Another issue I've had this week was diving into the bag of chocolate chips that we keep on hand for baking purposes. Apparently I crave, or at least really want, chocolate AND salty foods every single day. So my wonderful mother has agreed to move the container that stores the chocolate chips in another part of the house so that it will be hidden from me. I'm sure I don't really crave chocolate every night but it just started becoming a habit these past few nights that I would routinely go into the baking supplies for my chocolate fix. So hopefully this change will help kick my newfound habit.

As I mentioned in my Weekend Wrap-Up post, I definitely improved this week as reflected by the 2.4lb weight loss this week. However, I know I need to continue tightening the reins so that I can continue losing weight. Plus, if I can control what I eat a majority of the time, then I can enjoy life and learn to carefully indulge for special occasions. My goals this week are the same as last week:

• T R A C K E V E R Y T H I N G
• Check off my daily Good Health Guidelines (GHGs)
• Update my daily WW reminders on my phone

I'm almost tempted to add another goal to work on this week but I feel I need to focus on tracking EVERYTHING and checking off my GHGs for the next few weeks so both become habitual. Then I will start to challenge myself by adding one other simple goal to work on during the week like trying a new food or substituting one of my servings of fruit for a serving of veggies.

As far as Non-Scale Victories go for this week, I've actually had quite a few...

• My 90-minute, 5 mile walk for March of Dimes on Sunday
• As I mentioned above, I moved my snacks downstairs that I used to keep in my room
• During the evenings at work, I've been enjoying a cup of tea with an apple which is incredibly satisfying (especially on rainy days)

Also, I came up with a solution to meet more of my GHGs during my weekends when I'm away from home. Typically I complete my two dairy requirements as well as my two oil requirements by making a smoothie 5-6 days out of the week. I'm unable to do this when I'm away from home (or work, since I keep a portable blender at work) and it's inconvenient to have my necessary ingredients or kitchen equipment on hand so I'm missing out on my 2 healthy oils and 2 servings of dairy for at least one day in during the week. Therefore I've resolved to add my two oils (2 teaspoons of canola oil) to my oatmeal which also counts as my whole grain for the day (not a requirement but whole grains fill you up). Additionally, I can buy a container with only two cups of fat free cottage cheese so I meet my dairy requirements. Then all I have to worry about is eating one or two more veggies when I'm away from home but I'm always sure to pack my usual of 3-4 pieces of fruit and 1-2 snack bags of carrots. It's better than nothing, y'know?

Weekend Wrap-Up 08

Another weekend has come & gone. I have to say that it was a marked improvement compared to the last 3-4 weekends. I stayed on plan and tracked about... 95% of the food I ate. Obviously the key is to continue improving until I'm tracking 100% -- no, 110% of everything that I eat when (or before OR slightly after) I eat something. I've upped my game when it comes to tracking Weight Watchers by tracking not only my food with points but also my power foods, most of which has zero points. I've also been really good about keeping up with checking off my daily Good Health Guidelines throughout the day. The only day I didn't meet all of my daily GHGs was Friday.

A few new things I discovered this weekend include:

• The salad toppings at Chick-Fil-A that I mentioned in another post are 2 points+ for a small bag of mixed nuts and 1 points+ for a small bag of mixed granola; I gave the nuts to some else and enjoyed the small treat on top of my salad
• Chick-Fil-A sells mini sundaes which are 5 WW points+ AND adorable; it's really not bad if you're looking for a special treat
• Five miles really isn't long or far as one might think
• Getting cavities drilled/filled can make eating crunchy fruits or veggies (e.g. apples, pears, and carrots) rather unpleasant
• When you go to Saladworks and they ask if you want a white or wheat roll, you can ask for something completely different in place of a roll such as apple slices!

I'm pretty excited about all of the new things I learned this weekend, except for the last one for obvious reasons.

I ended my weekend today by participating in a 5-mile walk for March of Dimes. It was a last minute, spur-of-the-moment decision to participate in when a friend of mine asked if I'd like to join her for the walk this morning. I've never done a proper 5k, let alone a 5-mile walk but I have walked for some fairly long distances before. Two years ago, I was also walking 3-3.5 miles almost every other day during the spring and summer months in hopes of becoming more of a runner. Since then I've learned that my body just not built for running (knee problems, flat feet, and my back often hurts). So my friend & I walked the entire 5 miles which I was perfectly fine with because I felt I could do 5 more miles once we were done!

In any case, I hope to do more 5ks or similar walks in the near future, whether they be for good causes or just for fun!

Weekly Weigh-In #15 (week of 4/16-4/22)

Since I started this journey in 2011, I've looked at every pound lost as another step towards the new person I was becoming (mostly in the physical sense, but if I happen to change otherwise then hopefully it would be for the better). Therefore, every pound gained became a step backwards and I always felt defeated when I back-tracked in my weight loss journey. This morning I took 4.5 steps backwards. I could not have been more upset or more frustration this morning during my Weight Watchers meeting as I sat there thinking about how much weight I gained.

However, I weighed in today knowing that I would have a gain -- I guess I just didn't expect it to be that big of a gain even though I really should have anticipated it. I wanted to weigh in so I could own all of the mistakes and I indulgences I made this week so I can learn for future weeks to come. I had yet another rough week, making it a rough month (four weeks total), and while there's no excuse for the bad food choices I've made, that doesn't mean I'm going to throw in the towel. There are people who often say that failure is not an option when it comes to their weight loss journey. If failure meant every pound they gained, then I would have given up a long time ago. For me, giving up is NOT an option.

While I hate to become that person who seems to waiver far too much on their WW plan and their weight becomes a roller coaster, sometimes the pressure of things can have the exact opposite affect that you want. When I started this journey three years ago, I felt very relaxed about the whole thing. All of the life/food changes I was making were drastic ones compared to the way I was eating before. It was easy for me to lose despite going into my extra points+ for the week. Now I think to I have to just work harder because the most rewarding things in life don't come easy.

So with that, I plan to shift all of my focus back to Weight Watchers. I will still track on MFP to keep in check my fruit (aka carb) intake but I'm going to go back to doing every single thing that I'm supposed to do for WW. This will include:

• T R A C K E V E R Y T H I N G
• Check off my daily Good Health Guidelines (GHGs) as I complete them in a day (eight 8-oz glasses of water, 2 servings of milk/dairy, 2 healthy oils, and 5-7 servings of fruits & veggies, multi-vitamin, and at least 30-60 minutes of physical activity)
• Update my daily WW reminders (I have them on my phone to remind me throughout the day to track my food and check off my GHGs)

If there was going to be one other thing I'd add to my list of mini-goals to work on for the week it would be to believe in myself. There are times when I simply feel I will never lose these last 40lbs. It seems completely unattainable and unrealistic for me to think it's possible. However, I've joined more communities (mostly on Facebook) that have many inspiring weight loss stories of people who have lost much more than I will have lost total by the time I reach my goal weight. I just have to remind myself that if they can lose that much weight, then I can definitely do the same. It's possible as long as I believe in myself and stick to plan without faltering or giving up.

My NSV for the week is that I discovered the hill mode on the stationary bikes at the gym. It doesn't seem like much but figuring out how to make the bike push me on varying degrees of difficult with hill mode means that I can give my body a slight rest when I need it the most (especially this week). Often I find that when I have a headache, I still want to be active and move my body but having my head bob up & down on the elliptical or my feet hitting the pavement/treadmill track can only intensify my headache. Using a stationary bike is a good compromise that will allow me to work up a sweat without aggravating my head!

Weekend Wrap-Up 07

It's been awhile since I've done a Weekend Wrap-Up post but it's long overdue. This weekend was... not the worst weekend I've had but certainly not the best. I seem to have lost a bit of my self-control sometime between Thursday night and... this morning.

I started off my weekend pretty well. At some point during my weekends, I go away from home to stay someplace where I'm not 100% comfortable with utilizing the microwave available to me, so I've been packing one meal that I need to microwave (just in case) and my oatmeal which I can simply eat cold if needed. I ate my oatmeal as sort of a brunch meal but then waited too long to have dinner so I ended up snacking too much on items that were too high in calories/points. To be fair, they were new-to-me products that I had never seen: gluten-free protein bars. Granted, one was 6 WW points+ and the other was 7 points+, so they weren't worth it as that's how much I allocate for a meal (and, if I remember correctly, they were just as high in calories between 235-300 calories for one protein bar).

However, for dinner on Thursday, I tried something new! I had never been to Chick-Fil-A but I went for my first time on Thursday where I tried their Grilled Market Salad. It was SO GOOD. The salad consisted of mixed greens, grilled chicken, blue cheese, chopped apples, blueberries, and sliced strawberries. (I've heard of strawberries and apples in salads but never blueberries.) Therefore, the only thing you had to point on Weight Watchers for the salad was the grilled chicken and blue cheese! Chick-Fil-A also offered Fat Free Honey Dijon dress (one of my favorites) and put the crunchy, nutty toppings in separate packets so you can opt to have them. Next time (because there WILL be a next time), I plan to ask they leave out the crunchy toppings or I just won't put them on the salad at all. I wanted to add them to my salad this time just to try it once. Plus, Chick-Fil-A also offered a fruit bowl in three different sizes as a side dish. PERFECTION.

(Chick-Fil-A also happened to be the best fast-food chain restaurant experience of my life to date. Kudos to you, Chick-Fil-A. Kudos.)

I ended Thursday night by going to see a movie and getting movie theater popcorn. Although I didn't get any additional butter on the popcorn, I should have just skipped the snack because a small is always way too big. Besides, I didn't get any exercising in on Thursday so it's not like I worked out enough to have an extra snack.

Friday wasn't too bad until the very late evening. I stuck to my Weight Watchers points+/MFP calories for the most part all day long. I did my strength training work out at the gym followed by my Scottish Country Dancing class where we learned a confusing new dance. I had a delicious, healthful dinner of a huge salad topped with salmon and brown rice thanks to my wonderful mom. I saw another movie Friday night and successfully skipped the movie theater popcorn since it was right after having a very filling dinner. However, I ended up doing some late-night snacking that I wish I hadn't done. Live & learn though, right?

Yesterday I didn't do too bad up until, yet again, late at night. I stopped at the grocery store and pick up a few snacks that I had been curious about trying. Bad decision. I really need to just... not go to the grocery store except on my designated grocery shopping days (usually Wednesdays). To be fair, one of the snack foods that I picked up was a new awesome find that's low in WW points+/calories and has a lot to the snack -- I might post about it later along with another food find of mine if I can think of a clever post for those kinds of food finds.

I also got my Easter basket last night from my lovely mom who put not only sugar-free candies in my basket but cute plushies and gluten-free mixes as well! It was great! But too bad I had lost ALL of my self-control Saturday night. It went completely out the window since I really wanted to try those new-to-me snacks that I had picked up at the grocery store before heading home. Lesson learned!

The good news is...

• Most/ALL of the tempting food is out of my house/gone
• I didn't buy anything on my Do Not Buy food list (the foods that I cannot control myself at all)
• Even though my usual gym was closed (unbeknownst to me), I still did a 38-minute walk before I started work
• I made it to my SCD class on Friday then got in my second strength-training work-out on Friday and did my HiiT elliptical work-out on Saturday
• There was no big Easter dinner for me to worry or stress out about what food I would or wouldn't be eating without feeling immensely guilty about possibly offending someone for not eating their home-cooked food (crisis averted, phew!)

Overall, for this being the first weekend when I'm back on program, I wish I had done much better. However, every time I say that just means it's another moment (or moments in this instance) for me to learn for future instances. For example, a few things I learned this weekend include:

• If I'm going to pack a protein bar to hold me over when I'm not staying at home, only pack ONE protein bar
• No buying my own bag of popcorn at the movies because I just don't need it -- sharing is caring, even if the other person gets butter on their popcorn... it's better to just have a little bit of someone else's buttered popcorn than to have my own bag of LOTS of popcorn
• Only buy ONE new-to-me snack if I absolutely MUST try the snack; otherwise just don't even both going to the grocery store when it's not my usual grocery trip
• As I mentioned before, asking Chick-Fil-A to leave out the crunch toppings from my salad order (easy thing to do though!)

The only instance I don't know how to fix/work on is late-night snacking. Sometimes I start and just can't stop for whatever reason. Most of the time, I snack because I'm actually hungry so maybe it's advisable if I eat something that's packed with protein (Greek yogurt or PB2). Otherwise my late-night snacking is caused by a salty or sweet craving of mine (sometimes both!) which is also unavoidable.

Weekly Weigh-In #14

Last night I ended my week on a not-so-good note yet somehow I managed to lose 0.2lbs this morning. I'm not letting this go to head though! In fact, I'm getting my head back into my journey and going back to tracking 100%, even if that means taking a break from tracking on My Fitness Pal so I focus just on Weight Watchers.

Although I ended my week on a bad note last night, the motivation to go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter definitely made me pause and think about my actions (what I was buying that I was inevitably going to eat later) before doing them. So, I feel certain that the motivation of this trip is going to help.

(Yes, I did admit to being "bad" and eating a bag of chips -- but I'm human. It's about progress, not perfection. Almost everyone has slip-ups, you just have to learn from them and work harder to not repeat them.)

I'm giving myself one goal to work on this week: TRACK HONESTLY. I want to also focus on what I'm eating as I'm hoping to move towards clean eating. At the moment I have some reading/research to do on clean eating before I can commit to that sort of an eating lifestyle. However, it sounds like "clean eating" varies from person to person. I think it's all about finding what works for you, your schedule, and your way of living.

I do plan to go back to looking at my weight loss or gain for each week. I'm not saying I'll do this every week but it's what helps me monitor how I'm doing every week. I need to learn how to not let gains or losses affect how I'm thinking about the program though. A gain does not mean I should give up all hope or wallow in my disappointment/frustration/sadness of gaining. A loss should not mean I should treat myself with food or that I can splurge every week just because I splurged that week and still ended up losing. The number on the scale should just be ONE of the indicators of how I'm following the program, not the ONLY indicator. I should follow the program because it works and it's what will get me to my goal weight eventually.

My NSV for the week was going out to a Social for my Scottish Country Dance class. It was TONS of fun and I'm so glad I went despite my hesitancy to go in the first place. Even though I arrived to the Social late and sat out for a few of the dances as soon as I arrived, I was eventually kindly coerced into participating in the last few dances of the evening. Although half of the people there were from my SCD class, the other half was made up of unfamiliar faces that had obviously been doing Scottish Country Dancing for quite some time. Needless to say, as a beginner dancer still learning the fancy footwork of Scottish Country Dancing, I was nervous about dancing with others. Thankfully everyone was very nice and incredibly sweet about dancing with students. Plus, there was a live band playing fantastic Scottish music!

Motivation Monday

I've been doing a lot of thinking since I posted yesterday, wracking my brain trying to come up with an idea for what could be motivational enough for me to reach my goal weight. There are plethora of reasons for why I keep going to Weight Watchers and continuing my journey: my own well-being, improving my physical health, looking better in pictures, feeling better overall, etc. They are all excellent reasons for me to keep going but I definitely need something fairly big and important enough waiting for me at the finish line that would actually make me want to reach my goal weight. I've finally figured out what that is: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

In May 2010, I first went to this theme park with one of my best friends (Cyndee) as a way to celebrate our success of graduating from college. Cyndee & I lived together our freshmen year of college and we've been basically inseparable ever since. The trip was so awesome the first time we went that we both vowed to go back. If you haven't heard the somewhat recent news, Universal is expanding the theme park to add some more Harry Potter references including the Hogwarts Express and Diagon Alley. When we read this news, Cyndee & I both agreed that we would go back in 2015, figuring that would be the perfect time to revisit (a 5-year reunion & such).

There was a part of my first trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter that sort of prompted me to start wanting to lose weight. While waiting in line for one of the biggest (and probably best) ride at the park -- The Forbidden Journey -- we were so close to finally getting on the ride when one of the park attendants had me step aside to make sure I could fit into the sample seat for the ride. It was one of the most embarrassing, mortifying moments of my life that had a significant negative impact on my self-esteem. Here I was SUPER excited to get one of the biggest rides in the park and there was a possibility that I wouldn't be able to fit. Not to mention there was a crowd of people also standing in line watching me as I shoved myself into the sample seating hoping I could go on the ride.

It was sort of reality forcing me to realize how much I weighed. Before then my weight was never a huge issue that held me back me back from much of anything. I really didn't care about how much I weighed because I generally had a great personality with loving friends & family who didn't mind me being overweight. However, being at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was a BIG deal for me. It was an even bigger deal to me that I had reached a point in my life where my weight was finally holding me back.

The picture in this post is from that trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter when I was probably at my heaviest or near it anyways. I spent the summer after graduating from college a bit lost because my identity as a student for the last 16 years of my life was gone. So I ended up emotionally eating whatever I wanted on top of the last 4-6 years when I was doing the same.

Almost a year later I joined Weight Watchers because I had the means to finally join on my own for my own reasons. Obviously since then I've made some great strides with my weight loss but of course I have the last 40lbs to lose until I hit my goal weight. So after talking to Cyndee, I've decided to make our second trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter my ultimate reward for hitting my goal weight. It's a big, attainable goal for myself that I was already planning on doing in the first place but not so attainable that I can do it whenever I want (example: buying a new pair of pants every time I lose 10lbs). Cyndee & I won't be booking our trip until I've hit my goal weight (or I'm 5 to 10lbs away from my GW). My hope is to lose my 40lbs by March 1st of next year which is probably when we were going to book the trip anyways.

I still don't want to look at the big picture because even though I've lost 75-80lbs already, 40lbs just seems daunting because of the roller coaster I've had with my weight loss for the past two years. I think I'll be making more Motivational Monday posts like this with maybe incentives for every 5-10lbs that I lose or when I hit a 5% weight loss. I'll have to work out the specifics of that idea but I'll need to keep myself motivated for the next 10 or so months. However, I know with this trip will be the biggest motivation for me to hit my goal weight.

A Pensive Post

This blog has been woefully neglected for well over a week. My sincerest apologies for the unexpected, unannounced hiatus. I can't say I've been doing better with my weight loss -- in fact I've doing worse. This isn't a Weekend Wrap-Up post or a Weekly Weigh-In post. It's simply a post I need to make to get my thoughts straighten out to hopefully help me reevaluate my journey and where I'm going with it.

As I've continuously mentioned these past few weeks have been hard. Much harder than I was expected. It's not even that I'm having consecutive days where I'm sad, angry, or just feeling down. I'm having to adjust to life changes -- both good & bad -- that have completely thrown me for a loop.

So I've been emotionally eating: I'll eat when I'm happy, sad, angry, frustrated, depressed, joyful, stress, pleased, etc. Any emotion you can name, I've probably been eating for it. I remember my first year of doing Weight Watchers so clearly. The program was SO easy. I had thought that I wasn't an emotional eater because I did so well controlling everything: my feelings AND my food. I was in a safe place in my life for a variety of reasons because I had just moved some place new where I didn't have friends in the area so I didn't have to worry about eating out. I didn't have to worry about splitting my time between work, friends, the gym, and my other hobbies. I only had to worry about me for the first year of my WW journey and that made it IMMENSELY easy to follow the program.

At about 10 months into the program, I started going through some personal life changes that threw me for a loop like it's done to me now. And now as I'm reflecting on it, the circumstances of what's happening in my present are incredibly similar to what was happening two years ago when my commitment to the WW program started to waiver.

How does one control their emotions so it doesn't affect their eating habits? Better yet, how does one separate their eating/food behaviors from their emotions? How does one endure difficult or even just simple life changes without wanting to fall back on the one thing that's always been a comfort to them: food. How?

The other thing I struggle with is my motivation. I feel like I've lost any & all motivation I may or may not have had at the beginning of my journey. Actually, I can say for certain that I never had an end goal in mind when I started Weight Watchers. I started the program because I just wanted/needed something in my life to control as I was dealing with other Life Changes (again!) when I moved from Pennsylvania to Delaware. Joining WW gave me something to focus on, something to control, while other aspects in my life were completely out of my control. So when I started WW, I didn't necessarily have a motivation to do it other than having some sort of control over at least one area in my life.

While I do still want to have control over something in life, it's not the most important thing to me right now. I have something that's consistent: my job. I think it was the lack of something consistent and constant that I needed in my life (because, at the time, I had only been out of college for a year and I had no idea what a steady job was and there so much uncertainty in my life when I started WW). Now I feel I've settled down and while life can be a roller coaster of changes, emotions, and adjustments, at least I feel secure with a few things: where I am in my life (specifically job-wise) and who I am as a person. Although I'm uncertain about those things at times but I feel secure enough with them to not have that need to control my food all the time like I did when I first joined WW.

I do know what my end goal is for Weight Watchers. I want to weigh 125lbs or thereabouts. But I have no idea what I'll look like at 125lbs or how I feel. The problem is kind of twofold: I feel great about myself and my body now more than I ever have in my life before. It's not perfect but these past few months have been about loving my body the way it is in its current state. I love the fact that I've really grown into a well-rounded person with lots of different interests & hobbies that I'm not ashamed to geek out about (even though I know I'm still discovering/creating who I am as a person). It's not like my end goal is to change who I am as a person. I just want to be healthy and happy but I'm still trying figure out if the two can even go together...

With all of that being said, I feel like there is no specific end in sight. Any time I've tried to put a deadline on my weight loss, it just stresses me out and I end up disappointing myself. I don't foresee myself making it to my goal weight by the end of this year but I also don't have anything that I absolutely NEED to lose weight for by a certain time. And I don't have any big, grand plans that I can do when I make it to my goal weight. It's not like I'm going to treat myself to a trip when I make it to goal weight. I'm just not. So I literally have ZERO motivation to keep losing weight and that's starting to become my biggest hurdle, especially since I'm so content with how I look & feel now.

I realize this post has been all over the place but it really has helped me to sort through some of my thoughts. I think the biggest thing is that I need to make some sort of motivation for myself. It needs to be something unattainable until I reach my goal weight. It needs to be something awesome but reasonable. I think I need to go back to focusing on the little milestones like losing 5% of my weight then 10% of it, etc. Like, 5% of my goal weight is 8lbs. It actually seems like a lot considering how slow I've been losing since I've lost so much weight. It's doable but I know I'll get frustrated because I used to be able to lose 8lbs in month. If I can lose 1lb a week (like I had originally planned to do), then I would reach it in two months which is awesome.

I may also stop using My Fitness Pal. I know that WW works and sometimes logging my food twice in a day can be rather troublesome. I don't know, so don't quote me on that because I'm sure I'll go track my food on MFP for my work week when I'm done typing this post up. It's just a thought. I do know that I'm going to back to finding out my weight every week. Even if it's giving my phone to my mom who tells me whether I've lost, gained, or stayed the same. As long as I can have an indicator of how I'm doing because I need to reality of my weight going up to snap back into the reality of how easy it is to go back to my starting weight. And that's not some place I want to be ever again.

Weekly Weigh-In [13/48]

Happy April!

I haven't weighed in yet this week but I know for sure that I probably did not lose weight. At some point throughout the week, I did peek at my weight loss to see how I've been doing and I can say that I've stayed about the same. Am I disappointed that I'm not losing the weight like I planned at the beginning of the year? Yes. However, this has definitely become less of a journey about getting to my goal weight by the end of 2014 and more about changing the way I see my body/body image as well as my relationship with food (changing it from unhealthy to healthy, slowly but surely).

With that being said, I've had a really rough last two weeks. As I mentioned in my last post, I've been dealing with some personal problems and my life has been turned upside (or right-side up, I'm not quite sure yet). I've hit some really bad lows but things seem to be on the upswing as I've been experiencing lots of great moments lately. However, with these personal problems/situations, it's also mean that my routine has been messed up and I'm learning how to cope. I find that when I have a Good Life Routine, then eating well is VERY easy. But when I lose some sense of routine -- which I foresee happening in the upcoming weeks -- then I lose my ability to do well on my eating plans because I have learn how to eat well within those means/spaces.

I'm sure a lot of what I just said made NO sense what-so-ever. Basically I foresee myself having difficulties in the next few weeks or even months as my life goes through very unexpected changes. As much as I want to lose weight and do great on plan, I can't promise that will happen. I do have some ideas as to what I can do to help me in the upcoming weeks though...

• On week days (when I work), I will very carefully monitor AND track what I eat honestly. These will be the days that I do my absolute BEST on plan -- stay within my daily points+/calorie target, sleep at least 6 hours a night, continue my work-out regimes, etc.
• When it's my weekend or I have plans to be out of my home, I will do my very best to plan ahead and make the smartest eating choices that I possibly can make. I will also track honestly these days, even if it means back-tracking (example: tracking Tuesday on Wednesday because I didn't have enough time on Tuesday to track).
• Stop buying anything on my Do Not Buy list. This is a big one because I definitely didn't adhere to it for the past two weeks. My space at home is cleaned though. I've moved snacks that would be weaknesses out of my space. I don't have any snacks that aren't in individual snack bags and I plan to buy some WW snacks that are in snack bags because I just don't have the time or energy to weigh out snacks right now.

I think those are my biggest things to remember and adhere to for the upcoming weeks/months.

My Non-Scale Victory for the week is that I slept quite a bit Thursday night into Friday morning (actually, afternoon). I know this may not seem like a NSV to some people but my sleeping habits have been thrown completely off no thanks to the emotional roller coaster my life has been lately. If there was one thing I'd like to work on this week, it would be to work having better sleep habits again. Right now the best thing would be for me to move my cell phone to across the room at night so I don't have it as a distraction keeping me up late at night. I've already started working on this but I think I'll keep working on it as my work schedule goes back to what I'm used to starting Sunday (I'm working an 8am-5pm first shift for this week only but I go back to working 3pm to midnight).