Weighty Matters

but I'm not even thinking about it. Just moving forward. It's all I can do.

The Y has a program called Wellness Works, and part of that is that you have periodic fitness assessments. They take your measurements, and you do various physical things and they evaluate where you are. I had my first assessment at the end of September, and was supposed to have another at the end of December. Between my evaluator leaving and the holidays, I wasn't able to reschedule until today. My measurements were very improved. My chest -- 6 inches down. My waist -- 5 inches. My hips -- about 2 inches (which she told me wouldn't go down so fast anyway). I'm thrilled altogether with those results. And they weighed me as part of it -- I'd lost another pound since Thursday night! WAHOO! On the fitness assessments, I had good improvement (or maintained) in all areas. On one of the assessments -- where I have to sit on the edge of a chair and go up and down as often as possible in 30 seconds, I had an over 100% improvement. As things continue to improve, the assessments ...

This week was a good week. Not only did I lose 4.8 pounds (total: 86.4), but I did it eating MORE points. I realized that I needed to get going with the new points system. And it worked! One of the things we were asked to do tonight at our meeting was to list 3 recent accomplishments, 3 recent challenges, and 3 tips to share. So here are mine: Accomplishments -- Successes So Far losing 4.8 pounds this week losing four pants sizes since May sticking to my exercise plans this week (so far) Challenges to Success fitting in exercise on plan getting in my healthy oils the temptation to stress eat Tips for Continuing Success Keep remembering the long haul -- remember this process will have ups and downs, gains and losses. Patience, grasshopper. At the same time, keep your focus on one day, one meal, one moment at a time. Every wise choice made leads to success. Don't obsess. You are human - you will slip and make mistakes. Be gentle with yourself and then get back on the wagon. Hang in ...

According to the scales at this week's weigh-in, I gained back 1.4 pounds. Whatever. I know that I lost inches -- just as important as the poundage some weeks. Last week, I bought some new pants because the ones I bought in October have gotten way too big, even with belting them. I am now down four pants sizes from where I started in May '06. These pants are now -- only 9 days later -- a little too big in the waist. Holy God. I'm thinking my next shopping trip will be at Goodwill..... So what didn't work this week? My schedule -- I was only able to squeeze in two days of exercise, and that was just bad. I admit to a bit of laziness in this regard this week; facing the great outdoors at 6:30 AM and temperatures in the teens or low 20s was not appealing. The nice 70+ warmth to be found in the comforter was a siren call ... and I needed a wake-up call instead. So guess what will happen tomorrow morning? (Speaking of, I need to finish this post and go pack my bag). But tom...

Slow and steady goes the race, as does the pace of the weight loss. Not that I mind, by the way. I lost 2.8 more this week for a total of 83.0 pounds. I weighed in this morning, since Thursday was spent at home (a snow day!). Some weeks it's more, some it's less. This was a strange week. One day, I completely overshot my points. Not only used my activity points earned that day -- something I rarely do -- but ended up using some flex points as well. It didn't matter. I'm wondering if my body said, "Oh, thank you! Thank you! I appreciate the food -- and I will reward you accordingly!" Oddly enough, I got all psyched up afterwards to go walking. So I did -- drove over to the track at the high school (I figured a little local stuff wouldn't hurt), but the stadium was closed. It's hardly ever closed. I haven't tried the new walking track at the city park, but I figured I'd just drive on to the Y. Halfway there, I remembered something about Open Hous...