Well yesterday may have been a tough one, but today was a lot better for several reasons.  First, I didn’t get any headaches or feel hungry or cranky today (win!) Second, I found out that I am going to see my university roommate this Friday! (She’s home from China but we haven’t been able to coincide our schedules and summer travel plans yet – today we figured out we can meet up this weekend!  Yay!) And third, I got some awesome results at weigh-in tonight (read on if you want to know… I have to build some suspense!).  In the meantime, here’s how today went:

Breakfast:  So this makes no sense to me but today I only had a fried egg and 3 slices of turkey bacon for breakfast (no sweet potatoes) and I felt more satisfied when I was done.  Then again, today I decided to have my coffee (and cream) right after breakfast.  It tasted so good and it was so relaxing to sip on it while I checked out social media feeds and watched morning talk shows.  Man, am I ever going to miss these lazy, slow-moving mornings come September!

I’ll admit I wasn’t very active today – normally after breakfast I head out for a walk but since I slept in and lounged around, breakfast today was more like “brunch” and by the time I was done it was 32 degrees outside before the humidity!  So I opted not to go.  Instead, I did some more work for school – today’s fun:  working on my timetable and long-range plans!

Lunch:  When I drove my daughter to work today (she works at Tim Horton’s) I had a fleeting thought of grabbing a sandwich or a bagel for lunch.  Of course, it was just a little mini daydream though.  There’s not really many low-points options at Tim Hortons!  Lucky for me, the idea passed quickly and instead when I got home I whipped up my chicken taco salad using leftover chicken from yesterday.  With it, I had 2 sizeable chunks of sweet and juicy watermelon.

Workout: After lunch, I worked some more on my timetables before I headed to my gentle yoga class.  Admittedly, gentle yoga is not much of a physical workout.  It doesn’t get my heart rate up and I don’t sweat, but it does feel really good for my body!  It’s mostly a series of stretches, a lot of deep breathing, some easy yoga poses, and relaxation exercises.  Really, it’s more of a “mental” workout than it is physical but I absolutely love this class either way!  After, I feel peaceful, poised, and rejuvenated – really can’t complain!

Dinner:  When I left the gym, I started thinking about hamburgers (does that happen to anyone else?  I randomly think of food all the time for no apparent reason!) More specifically, I started thinking about hamburgers with buns.  It’s been so long since I’ve had one!  Plus, I only had about 25 minutes to grab something for dinner before I had to hit my WW meeting.  When I got home, I decided that I was going to have a burger for dinner.  I hadn’t planned anything else and by this time, I really wanted one.  Since I didn’t have enough time to grill one at home, I grabbed my phone and checked local fast food restaurants using my Weight Watchers app.  I thought, for sure I could find a fast-food burger that wasn’t that high in points.  Well, all I found was a junior burger at Wendy’s for 10 points.  And while 10 points for dinner is not too bad, I knew that tiny little burger would not fill me up so I’d have to have something else with it.  Before I knew it, I’d be at 15 points which would put me over my points for the day and not leave anything for an evening snack (or the frozen yogurt I was craving).  I decided not to have a burger and instead checked my freezer for something to have.  Right there on top was a Giuseppie frozen thin-crust, deluxe pizza.  Yum. I figured with it being thin-crust it wouldn’t really be that bad so I used my app to check again and discovered that 1/5 of the pizza (and they aren’t very big pizzas) is 7 points.  I’d want to eat at least 2 which would mean a total of 14 points, again leaving me no points for snacking later.  Finally, after some consideration, I tossed the pizza back in the freezer, and ate my leftover chicken taco salad from lunch.  I added a bit more chicken and some extra tortilla strips as I was wanting a little more crunch.  Then I had 1/2 cup Chapman’s chocolate frozen yogurt for a total of 11 points for dinner and dessert!  Man, am I ever glad I didn’t eat that burger or pizza!

After dinner, I headed to my weekly Weight Watchers meeting.  Guys, I am a huge advocate of Weight Watchers.  For me, it’s mostly about the accountability.  Checking in each week, discussing various topics with other people going through the same thing as me – it’s so inspiring.  Yes, we weigh-in every week and I am still not entirely sure how I feel about that.  I have been reading more about ditching the scale and I have to say I agree with it in some ways.  There are so many other ways to tell if your body is changing and getting healthier – how your clothes fit, looking at pictures of yourself, what you can do physically – to name just a few.  I’ve read a lot about women who eat clean and lift heavy weights and although the number on the scale is higher than it used to be for them, their body composition has changed entirely and they actually appear way more fit and thin.  Here’s an example of what I mean from a fitness blogger I follow on Instagram (@thesweatlife):

Anyway, all that being said, weighing yourself can be good or bad.  When you’re down, it’s motivating and satisfying (because as I’ve mentioned before, losing weight is hard), but when you’re up it can be very discouraging and depressing and sometimes even make you want to give up.  So I try not to get too hung up by the number on the scale.  However, WW does require that you weigh-in once a week, and guys, I am so excited to tell you that at tonight’s weigh-in I was down another 5 lbs!  That puts me at 8 lbs gone since I started my 30-day plan, and 15 lbs since I started back at Weight Watchers several months ago!  (I figured I was past 10lbs now because I bought a pair of shorts recently and had to get one size smaller than normal!). I am obviously thrilled with this result!  It’s funny that it comes the day after I was complaining about how hard it is to lose weight. And after having had so many treats last week while at my parents’ house, I was really not expecting to see such significant results on the scale (that being said, sometimes it takes more than a week to see results – so if you’ve been working hard and haven’t seen the results yet, KEEP GOING, because they will come!

In addition to all that, it’s just been one of those days where I can feel the results of my efforts.  You know when you have a “fat” day and just feel big and gross and uncomfortable?  Well, I’m actually feeling the opposite of that today!  I feel like my weight loss is starting to be noticeable (at least to me) and I felt skinny today!  A pretty great feeling!

So the other thing about my WW meeting is that it totally re-inspires me for the coming week.  This weekend we are heading out of of town again and I know there will be some food challenges.  But my 30-days won’t be up, so I am not throwing in the towel.  Instead, I am going to do what I did last time – plan ahead, bring some of my food, save all my “bonus” points, and make the best choices that I can while still enjoying myself!

21 days down, 9 days to go!