Because It Works

Things got ugly in the Watson household this week. I faced the scale and it went up again. Now that was no surprise as I’m just coming off of a Josh-Tara birthday cake/cupcake episode, yet it set off a few alarms for me.

A while back during one of my Weight Watchers (WW) classes, I asked members to jot down one piece of advice that they would then give to someone else. One person wrote “If you kind of do the program it kind of works and if you really work the program it really works.”

Ka-blaam-o! That just about sums it up. I’ve been putting in a half a$$ed effort for well, say, the past five months. Some days I’m a wellness champion, my eating and activity is downright heroic! Some days…epic fail. The net net (this seems to be the newest business buzzword) is that the scale has slowly been creeping up, one sneaky little pound at a time.

As a lifetime member on maintenance, I have a magic number that I don’t want to go above. I have surpassed that number and it’s about to get real up in here.

In the spirit of keeping it real, I am up a total of 4 pounds since before the holidays. Gasp! While some might be saying, please Tara, you still look great (hey thanks); others might be shaking their heads and clicking their tongues making a tsk…tsk…tsk…sound. I hear you!

This week, I got out my handy dandy notebook and got down to serious business. I developed a reasonable weigh loss map that has me losing .5 a week until I get back to where I want to be. While .5 a week might not seem like a lot, especially in today’s instant gratification world; it’s a reasonable goal for me when taking a few things into consideration:

• My current weight
• I have nerve damage in my foot which has severely limited my cardio workout abilities
• I’m stuck inside due to the cold and my neuralgia which makes me prone to eat from boredom

Once I mapped out my weight loss numbers, I started a list of things that I need to do more and less of:

• More: Water 
• Less: Sugary beverages (I’ve been sneaking them in)
• More: Exercise                                                                                 
• Less: Excuses
• More: Accurate tracking (pre-tracking my day)                                  
• Less: Guesstimates and half a$$ed tracking
• More: Fruits/Veggies                                                              
• Less: Sugar and processed foods
• More: Whole foods                                                                          
• Less: Baked goods (dang)
• More: Meal planning                                                                          
• Less: Dinners out

I also decided that I’m going to keep focused and motivated by checking out WW online every day, reading an article or success story to keep my head in the game.

Lastly, since I cannot go outside or attend/lead meetings due to the cold, I have asked my husband to hold me accountable on the scale. I will be reporting to him each week on my progress.

This week, I’d like to encourage you to take a good look at where you are and where you want to be and to map out a plan for your success.

• Be honest (yep it hurts).
• Share your plan with someone who will hold you accountable.
• Be realistic (you didn’t gain the weight in a week and you’re not going to lose it all in a week).

Make the choice. Commit to the choice. Ask for help. Continue with courage.  

Hugs and Friendship,

Tara