Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Moving On?

So...

I was never 100% sold on this blogging venue and was searching around for a new "home".

Well a lot of us displaced WW bloggers have finally found a new home for our blogs over on SparkPeople.

It is a weight loss /motivational free website.
The site has lots and lots of bells and whistles that we had been asking WW for.  Instead up upgrading they discontinued it.  Such a shame.

It also tracks macro nutrients if you care to double track your food. .  ( I have been for now, but most likely won't continue all the time).

I will not be quitting WW.
I will still try to use Connect, but find it a little too impersonal  and fleeting.  I can't make friends like before.  

I still need my meetings and I still need to get on that scale in front of someone else.

I am inserting the link to my latest blog over on SparkPeople. I have written 4 over there now.  Not sure if anyone can comment there or if you have to be signed up, but since many never even commented here... oh well.

Just didn't want anyone to think I had disappeared.

Spark People Blog


Happy Tuesday!

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

What A Difference A Day Makes

Yesterday I woke up at 6:30 to hear it raining and realize I had not shut my bedroom windows.  So grab the bath towel and start soaking up the water from the sills and the floor.

Back to bed to finish reading a book, then catch up on Facebook, Connect, and all my Words With Friends games.  Next thing I know it is 8:30.

Down for breakfast and sitting in the nice cool morning relaxing.
Now it is 11:30 and I have 883 steps for the day.

WHAT?

Off I go into town.  I walk both sides of Main Street up and down before going grocery shopping, come home go for a walk and then another after dinner.
Wound up the day with 8348.  Not the 10,000 I needed but better than it looked like it was going to be.




This morning I woke up at 6:30 to another nice cool crisp morning.
By 8:30 I have showered, dressed, eaten, started a load of wash and gotten a short walk in.  2329 steps .  Not bad for a vacation day where this screened in porch with the view just calls to be sat on all day.  (Except at 4pm when the sun is low enough to burn you out of there! )

I really am feeling more motivated.  Not sure what clicked, but I am not questioning the powers that be and hope this is finally my set point letting go and settle at some lower point.

I have one more weigh in here and if I keep up this good behavior of mine I should see another loss.   Would be so nice to get back down into the 170's again and only leave it again for the 160's.

Would also be nice if I could be at goal by New Years , of my WW anniversary of Jan 11, but with the Bermuda Triangle of food coming in November and the family birthday pentangle coming in Sept and Oct I have my work cut out for me.

Here's hoping tomorrow is an even BETTER day....

What can you do to make your day better?

Sunday, August 21, 2016

MOTIVATION

I am still reading this Find Your Fingerprint book from WW.

At the end there is a reprint from the Success Handbook about motivation.
I don't think I have seen it before.

It likens motivation to a clock.



12 = Highly motivated.

3= tiny slowdown in motivation

6= motivation is noticeably slower

9= completely unmotivated

At 12 we are gun ho, following the plan and losing

At 3  our drive starts to slip, loses slow, small gains slip in

At 6 we will hit a plateau

At 9 you are so unmotivated you don't care, you watch yourself make bad choices one after the other.

You need to see how close you are back to 12.....

Sometimes those slips can be our wake up call to get back on plan. They may be a trigger to our
re-motivation.

So their 3 step to get back on plan:

1 Take action.   We took action when we joined WW, now we need to do that again.

2.  That action does not have to be a big action.  Start small if need be. Drink your water for a week.  The next add more veggies, etc until these small things become our normal again.

3.  You don't always have to follow the rules.
They are saying have a little splurge now and then, just see it as that...  splurge , not a fall off plan.

Look for your RED FLAGS.
Have you stopped tracking 100%?
Do you talk yourself out of attending meetings or exercising?
Do you eat off your kids plates, do you top off your wine glass and not measure?

These little things add up.


The plan is what we make it.   Sometimes we make it into not the plan at all and then complain we are not losing.
My self made 2+ year plateau has been because I toe the line too closely to the wrong side of the plan.

The two weeks I tracked my grams of added sugar and keeping them under 25g a day I had very nice losses.

I have one more week here and then I go home to reality.

One good thing while here is I was responsible for cooking meals for my FIL.  It has gotten me back into the habit of cooking (and enforcing my rule of cook once eat twice!).  My husband did the bulk of the cooking at my house, so I needed to get back into the habit.   Hope I keep it up when I get home.

So here's to geting re-motivated and back to losing.  Carole and I have a goal to lose 5 lbs by the end of September.  I can do that ... especially if I am allowed to count this weeks 2.2 loss.  (Doing a 3 week cha-cha with that 2.2   , down, up, down) .

Ready, Set, GO!

Friday, August 19, 2016

BREATHE......

I am away for most of the summer and have been attending WW meetings while away.

This leader has a couple copies of a WW book that was published in the PointsPlus era called "Find Your Fingerprint".     She loans it out to meeting members and last week I brought it home.  It has been very interesting reading.


One of the sections talks about the 3 types of hunger.

Real hunger is physical and comes over time and can be satisfied with food

Emotional hunger is endless and is like trying to fill a bottomless pit.

And lastly what she calls FAUX hunger.  This can be brought on by smelling or hearing about good food.  Think popcorn or cinnamon smells or watching cooking shows on TV .  You didn't want it until you saw it or smelled it.  It is not real hunger.  (BREATHE)

The author talks about breathing a couple of times.
The first is doing just that,  breathing....   she wants us to use breathing as a TOOL.

She says prior to any food decision  we should actually stop and take 3 very DEEP breaths. It will give just enough pause to recognize dangerous choices we might be about to make.  Time to regroup.
Also we should be sitting up straighter, taking deeper breaths during the day and getting up and walking around taking deep breaths.  It will clear you mind.
And this is a TOOL that you will always have with you!



But the most interesting thought about breathing was this:

She says that during every meal there is a certain point where we naturally stop and take a deep breath.
This is supposedly the moment at which you should stop eating.  Your body's  signal.

I find this a very interesting observation and idea.

I can remember many a restaurant meal where I have stopped, put my fork down, and taken that breath... but I was not really reading that signal as saying to stop.  I was just waiting for my second wind.  And we know where that got me....  Time to start listening for that cue.


So, I'd like to challenge you all to try to "take notice" of when that moment hits you.    How will you handle it?

Will you stop,will you eat a few more bites, will you eat it all?
I'll be interested in hearing if you notice this "breath" during meals and how you react to it.









For anyone really struggling this is a great book, lots of information and work sheets.
The full title is : Finding Your Fingerprint, Your guide to making WW work for you"


Since it was published under PointsPlus it may not be available in the meeting rooms, but it never hurts to ask.  You can always check ebay or Amazon to see if there are any copies floating around out there.  Or your leader may have an old copy you can borrow.


Tuesday, August 16, 2016

My New Normal

Well.....

Here I am, Basketcase500 from the Community site.

This old dog is trying to learn a new trick and a new blog format.  

A little background on me.

I joined WW in Jan 2011.
I lost 52 lbs the first year, and another 12 the following year.  A few more after that and then slowly started pedaling backwards......

I have been fairly stagnant for over 2 years and need to get the weight loss moving. ...... I may be slow, and I may be steady but I am not a quitter.   I'll keep trying.

I have had a couple of life changes recently as many of you are aware.
My husband of almost 43 years passed away unexpectedly in May and I retired from my job as a dental office manager after almost 25 years at the end of June.

A week later I left for the summer to our summer home with my 96 year old FIL.

My sons and their families have been in and out all summer.  I currently have a WW friend here for a few days.

I'll be headed home in a couple of weeks and start working on finding my "new normal".   A life without my spouse, a life without work, a life that I intend to live to the fullest because none of us ever know when our lives are going to change on a dime.

My new normal is going to be filled with lots of time with my grandchildren, with travel, and trying to enjoy life while still trying to eat right, lose weight and get to that elusive WW lifetime status.



Before and During