Do not reward yourself with food, you are not a dog

The weekend is finally upon us!  For me, that usually means i will eat whatever the heck I want and drinking more wine than I usually would.... if I was drinking wine. *cough*  I can rationalize anything when it comes to a food I love to eat.   I'll say "oh, I ran today and burned 600 calories, so I can eat this and be okay."  In fact, when I hit the measly ten pounds lost mark...I rewarded myself with.... A CHEESEBURGER.  Not just a little McDonald's cheeseburger, a burger from the local ice cream shop (which has killer bar-type food).  I remember the wintry afternoon, sending my husband out for a 'real' burger, because Hey, I just lost a whopping ten pounds.  

That burger sucked and was burned and dry and almost inedible and I still ate every dumb bite.

I was all mad.  I kept saying "that was not worth it."  The burger was terrible, I wasted hard earned, burned calories.  Then I thought..."what if the burger was good?"  It was then, back in March....I realized that rewarding with food...isn't a reward at all.  It was a trigger for more bad food, an excuse to eat bad food, a great way to feel bad for eating bad food.  I realized...you cannot reward yourself with food!

So, this weekend, think twice about what you eat.  Do you need it?  Are you truly hungry?  Are you feeling snacky?  Is there fruit available instead?  Have you had your water?   Is it the best possible choice for fueling your body?  I know those are tough questions, I battle them daily.  One step at a time, and we'll all end up happy with our choices and happier with our bodies.  

Confessions of a Traveling Sister

I'm home...again.  Now, where to start?  The scale.

I had to, HAD to weigh myself.  Even if I was gone 14 out of 18 days.  I 'weighed' in (kinda, unofficially) at my sisters house, once.  Scrunching up my nose at the scale, I decided to wait to do official weigh ins at home, starting the first Wednesday I was there.   Cue Wednesday...got on the scale and had a gain (duh) of 1.8 pounds.  WHAT??  I was soooo happy with that number!  Also, today I got on the scale and I am within half a pound of my 'low'.

Next up, the food.

I ate at McDonald's, Papa Johns, Industrial Revolution, Steak-n-Shake (at 3:00am), Sophia's House of Pancakes, Jimmy Johns (3 times).  At home I feasted on... Beth's Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup, Beth's Awesome Crock Pot Chicken Enchilada's,  Beth's Quick & Delicious Pasta,  Amy's Amazin' Hot Dog Roll-Ups and Mom's Creamy-Good Cream of Chicken.   Breakfasts were a 'healthy' bowl of cereal and coffee.  and, quite honestly, there was very-little-to-none of that dreaded 'snacking'.   I do sort of feel bad for not sharing some of my corned beef hash with Beth, I kept catching her staring at it.  She did say something about 'dog food' but underneath that comment, I know she wanted some.  Next time, though.  Anyway, I ate what was served and ordered what I wanted and I have zero regret.  I knew I'd come home and get back on my healthy eating and that's exactly what I did.  I got up on Tuesday morning, dashed to the store for a few items for the week, knowing I have set myself up for a successful week of eating 'good for you' food.

Now, the running.

Not good.  I ran 4 of 14 days away from home.  My plan was to run every morning while I was there.  The first morning, I did run.  It started pretty rough but by mile three, I felt I could go forever, or just another .65 miles, which is what I did.   I'm not happy with running only 4 times but it is what it is and I can't change it.  So, it's time to rack up some miles, eh?

So, there it is.  The good, the bad and the very ugly.  It was fabulous week.  Sweet babies, sister time, some laughs, some naps...I wouldn't trade even one of the moments for a run.   I loved the whole week and would do it again in a heartbeat.

Oh my God!  I just remembered I had wine EVERY NIGHT!  And, we had donuts on the day I left.  But, like I said, I'd do it all over again....maybe more donuts though.

 For now...I am home.  What a fantastic little trip that was!  That was SO good for my soul on so many levels.  Where do I begin?  Well, first off....  the running...was amazing.  My sister, Beth, recommended a gorgeous trail close to her home...and the weather couldn't have possibly been more 'fallish' and perfect and warm and bright and windy and absolutely perfect.  The weather was amazing EVERY-SINGLE-DAY.  The trail?   3 miles of sand, some slight hills, a little boardwalk, a little sidewalk, falling leaves...and hello?  I had a running partner!  I really love running with someone.  Again, perfect.

The eating?  Not so perfect.  I had wine (duh), a few donuts (omg), meatloaf and homemade mashed potatoes, taco freaking salad (dying), and so many delicious things my sister's friends dropped off.  She is so blessed to have so many wonderful friends.  I really have no regrets on the food, well...maybe I should have had more?  HA.

Then?  I'm going back!  Monday morning, bright and early...well, not bright, it's actually pretty much in the middle of the night, but I'm returning and cannot wait... for?  Baby holding, toddler playing, sister chatting, mom hugging, wine sipping, and more running on that amazing trail.

Cannot wait.

Maintaining complaining

Weigh in day.  I weigh in every Wednesday, it's the one day of the week where I strip completely and step on the cold scale, shiver and wait.  It takes forever for the numbers to pop up (or it seems to).   This week was a different week for me...I tracked EVERYTHING.  You know, like you're supposed to.  Usually, if I have wine on the weekends, I won't track it....actually, on the weekends I usually don't track much.  Maybe I'll only track AP's (activity points), and yeah, that's not how you're supposed to do it.  So, anyway, I tracked like a good little weight watcher girl, and guess what I found out?  I simply eat too much.   Maybe I'll share what I ate last week.  Oh no, Weight Watchers doesn't have a glutton recap page, I wonder why?  ;)

I don't eat bad food.  I cannot remember the last time I had fast food.  Whole wheat pasta, oodles of veggies, at least one banana a day.  Whole grains are my favorite - LOVE them.  So, maybe two slices of whole grain bread a day - either in a sandwich or toast.   It doesn't matter, I still eat too much of the good-for-you-food.   I get a weekly allowance of 49 points to use any way that I desire, that's on top of my daily 30 points.  This week I earned 74 activity points, too....and according to weight watchers, you can eat/use those.  Well, I did.  I swapped and used 38.  I consumed 297 points this week!  Oy vey!

Back to tracking.  I know this works, down almost forty pounds and four years ago I lost fifty.  However, I need to lose a lot more than fifty this time around *cough* now give me a donut.

I'm so excited!  I'm traveling this week.  ROAD TRIP!  My sister had a baby, so my sister-in-law and I are heading to Indiana.  I seriously haven't left the state of Nebraska since Easter...so this is a much needed break.  Why 'leave the state of Nebraska?' .... well, I know about four people here and everyone else is far away.   I can't wait to see my sister, my mom and dad and some of my nieces and nephews.  Anyway, my sister-in-law, Teresa is about eight hours west of here, in Colorado.  So, she'll leave Thursday morning and head here.  It's funny, I live about five miles from Interstate 80, so she and my sweet niece will come here, spend the night and we'll leave on Friday morning.  I'M GOING TO INDIANA, I'M SO HAPPY!!  

But, I'm also worried.   I'm worried about my eating choices, I know this five day getaway will NOT derail me from my fitness and Weight Watchers goals (but there’s so many restaurants there I love, and so many margaritas and so much wine.)  I *do* know when I get home; it will be as though I never left.  I'll easily slip back into the daily routines I have created over the last 4-5 months.  Also, proactively, I did chat with my Mom and Teresa and we know like it's not even a question that we will be running.  Teresa is now a running addict – I so love that!  I'm really excited to finally have some running partners, how motivating!  In fact, I'm thinking maybe of Teresa and me getting up early on Friday and hitting the road before we even leave - shhhhhh, don't tell her.  I think that would be totally bad-ass.  I'd also love to Shred...oops, did I say that?  Hey, as long as I'm running...I'm happy with that.  Oh, and something else that makes me happy?  Meeting my new, beautiful niece. 

and today's little motivation piece...I may be 'busy' in Indiana, but I won't be too busy. 

There's something I've been thinking about for some time.  Maybe it's because I feel my weight loss is going slower than it should be...but I am losing about 1.5 pounds/week on average, and I do know that is perfect.  BUT I'M RUNNING SO MUCH.  

So, I chatted with a trainer.  She wanted to know everything about my diet, habits, sleeping, drinking, running...everything.  Two words.  Resistance training.  She said you "can lose weight with only cardio, but it is much slower and you probably won't like your body too much".   So I asked her about the 30 Day Shred (by Jillian Michaels) ...she said that would be perfect!  So...I shredded, twice.  It was hard, yes, but did not kill me.  I'm ok with that.  Oh, and this resistance training goes along with my running.  

So, after much thinking, and for the first time - EVER...I'm going to take my measurements and track my changes in actual places on my body.  Maybe taking some focus off the scale?  I'm thinking as much as I'd love a 2 pound loss, I'd be pretty freaking stoked to see my measurements shrinking.   Do you track your measurements?  Why or why not?   Should I?   Should you? 

This is as much for me as it is for you.  I didn't work out yesterday due to a tantrum and a crying fit.  I hate, hate pms'ing.  Makes me feel like a ravenous, deranged, lazy, bloated alien.  and I ate a restaurant burgerwithsomefries  What? I did.  Now my points plus are all out of wack on Weight Watchers.  When I say 'out of wack', that means I think I ate all of my points right up until Christmas.  *sigh* I was so looking forward to Thanksgiving!

BUT!  Today is a new day.  I WILL RUN.  I WILL SHRED.  I WILL NOT MAKE BAD CHOICES!  Now that I've shared that, there's some accountability.  I also find, for me....by putting off my daily workouts, then my mind begins to cheat on it.  I start to think about watching a movie, or, taking a nap *gasp* or, finding a workout on Netflix when we don't even have it!  *ahem*

How are you taking care of your goals today?  We'd love to hear what you're doing to 'sweat'!