We all know there are a variety of things out there that can hamper our weight loss journeys. Whether it is stress, temptations, weak will power, holidays…whatever, there are a lot of things that can get in our way. Some things we can control, like not over eating during the holidays, some things we can’t control as much, like having to deal with a sudden and stressful situation. That is what I had happen last week, I found out tuesday night that lay offs were happening at work and since then I had major stress. Stress I would get laid off, stress because one of my good friends got laid off, basically I had stress. lol.
I am not good at dealing with stress. Sure, with certain types of stressful situations I am fine but uber stressful? Nope, not my thing. In general, I have a very stress free existence. I don’t mean that I don’t have things in my life that cause stress, I just mean I don’t allow those things to stress me out. I just dismiss things, what’s that expressions…as a duck sheds water…that is how I am with stress. shrug. It rolls off my back – it’s a good way of being, I think, but it also means that when something out of my control pops up that is uber stressful my body freaks. sigh.
The freaking of this past week caused my body to have stomach pain, headaches, bad sleep and a host of other physical symptoms. Through all this I was most worried that the stress would cause me to not lose weight – as of last weekends weigh in day I was 0.8 pounds away from reaching 15 pounds lost and I really wanted to reach that 15 pounds! I wanted to reach it cause, hello? 15 pounds is awesome! and also cause it meant I had reached my first goal and would be allowed to purchase a full length mirror and go through my closet trying on all my clothes to see what fit and what was too large and basically having a fun clothes day. I have been slowly finding clothes in my closet that I can fit in to that 15 pounds ago I was too fat for, I am way excited to find even more of them but decided to make an event of it – hence the waiting till I reached 15 pounds lost. 🙂
Well, I was sorta right and sorta wrong about the stress causing me weigh in day problems. See, weigh in day is every Saturday at 2pm, this became the day and time cause (1) I wanted it on a weekend and (2) the first couple weeks I slept in way late and that was the time I was finally up and about so I have kept it that way ever since. The problem with having weigh in time so late in the day is that if I have anything to do on the saturday that causes me to get up earlier it screws up my weigh in. Anyone who weighs in weekly knows that stepping on that scale around the same time each week is vital.
So friday night I was out with a friend and we ended up eating dinner later then normal, that might have been ok except I also had to get up earlier then normal on the saturday cause I have a nannying job and no way would I get there in time if I wasn’t already up, dressed and fed by 2pm. When I stepped on that scale saturday I was nervous and felt I had every right to be, especially when the number popped up and I had gained 0.2 pounds, yup, you read that right, I gained. sigh. I wasn’t upset about it, which is kinda surprising, but I knew there was a good chance the scale would be mean that morning because of (1) all the stress, (2) later dinner friday and (3) early weigh in time saturday…it was a recipe for a bad number. lol.
I decided to not let it get to me, after all, what could I do about it? Sure, I was now a full freakin pound away from 15 pounds lost instead of 0.8 but sigh, you just gotta let these things go. However, I did decide to re-weigh myself on the sunday, just to see if the number changed…mostly cause I was curious if I had gained the 0.2 pounds because of the dinner, the early weigh in or the stress. I figured if it was the stress the number would still be about the same but if it was a combo of the other two factors maybe the number would be different. Well, woohoo! The number was different! *happy dance* I had lost 1 pound so now I am only 0.2 pounds away from that 15 pounds lost! I almost cheated and went and bought the mirror, I thought that I am soooo close and for sure I will lose that 0.2 this week so why not get it this weekend and have it all ready for use next weekend when going through the clothes in my closet? Right? Well, I decided not to. Cause I haven’t reached the 15 pounds so if I bought the mirror I would be cheating myself out of the celebration of buying it cause I had reached a goal. Does that make sense? Also, if I bought the mirror before I reached the 15 pounds then what happens with my next goal? K, sure, I haven’t actually set a second goal yet, lol, but say I set a goal so that when I lose 30 pounds I get to buy, I dunno, really rockin boots, well, if I pre-buy this goal then for the next goal it will be even easier to say “meh, I am only 5 pounds away from reaching the 30 pound mark, for sure I will reach it so I’ll go buy the boots now” – then not only am I cheating myself out of my prize again! I am cheating at an even earlier time…which you may say I won’t do but I probably would. By buying early now I am practically giving my future self permission to cheat. *rolls eyes* that may sound stupid but it’s how I work. Ya gotta set precedent ya know? …all those law classes at work I guess. lol.
So here I am, 0.2 pounds away from my 15 pounds lost mark and feeling uber happy about that. Even with all that stress last week I stuck to my points and did what I was supposed to and I guess it worked. Sure, I didn’t lose a lot but considering everything that was going on last week, I am happy I lost anything at all. Oh, and combine all that stress with me not exercising…not even once! Oy! Bad move me. lol. I am hopefully starting up a new exercise class tomorrow so I’ll let you know how that goes.
Today I ate:
3 pieces french toast = 7 points
3 tbls maple syrup = 2 points
3 tsp brown sugar = 1 point
2 pieces turkey bacon = 2 points
2 cups kettle corn = 1 1/4 point
1 Mr Noodle chicken flavour = 8 points
1 Quaker Crunch’ers = 2 points
That puts me at 23 1/4 points eaten for the day. Crap. I forgot to write down the turkey bacon in my tracking book and only now remembered it, so that messed up my points for today. I hate forgetting to put things down in my tracker cause that means when I am looking at getting a snack or something I think I have more points to play with then I do, grr.
I think I normally forget to write things down on the weekend cause I am more lax about things, ya know? I am not being controlled by the schedule at work or anything which makes it easier to just slack. Ah well, 1 1/4 points over isn’t gonna kill me, and ya know what? That french toast was sooooo worth it! Mmm! It’s the first time I have ever made french toast, I had to figure out what to do by memory and I am pleasantly surprised I figured it out. So yummy! 😀
Hopefully tomorrow the new work out class works out cause that’ll mean I have one guaranteed physical activity a week for I think it’s 6 weeks, then I can combine with that my 11 visit drop in pass for the local community centre, I can use the pass for the exercise room so I will try to pick one day a week I will for sure go and voila! back to two exercise days a week. 😀 Wish me luck!
The Amazing Shrinking Woman 
Good luck with your new exercise class! I walk twice a week with friends, and am trying to talk myself into an Aquasize class – but the water at our local pool is soooooooo cold! Last time I tried it, I got cramp in my foot half way through the session – I’m a wimp! Plus, it’s getting colder outside too, so I’d probably freeze on swim day – so maybe I’ll do it next year?????????