5 More Days Until Dietbet! YIKES!!!

I went up! I will take care of that.
1) today - no breakfast, fruit or small veggie salad for lunch and dinner. Workout tonight.
2) tomorrow - workout in a.m., no breakfast, same lunch, stick to fruits and vegetables at diversity meeting, workout at night.
3) friday through monday morning - workout morning and night, no breakfast, f/v lunch, f/v/beans at home dinner.

I've made some changes that I'll explain later.

Update 3.10.12

I've lost 1.4 pounds this week. I IF'd for only 3 days; I would have lost more had I IF'd. I want to be 177 lbs - 171 lbs at next Saturday's weigh-in.  WW will only let me weigh-in once per week. Although my meetings are scheduled for Saturdays, the machine would not record my weight because I weighed in last Sunday. I am not happy about that at all. That's a little inflexible and inconvenient. The website starts my new week on Saturdays, so I expected the system to be synchronized and for the same to be true at the meeting places. Not so. So I guess this week doesn't count, and technically my Week 5 weigh-in will be next Saturday. Oh well.

Vent - WW Meeting 3.4.12

At the WW meeting this morning, the leader asked if there were any "celebrations." I raised my hand and said that I lost 1 pound. She said I'd been there for a few weeks now and asked me how much I had lost so far. I didn't know. She then said, "We'll move on while she figures it out. Know your celebrations people!" Excuse me? First, she had been gone for most of the time I've been a member, so I had no reason to know what a "celebration" was! I despise the fact that she embarrassed me like that. I am even more upset with myself for not saying anything when she made that statement. After all that, I'm still not sure what she calls a "celebration." This is the first time I heard that. I'll return to my Saturday morning meetings. That leader is more generous with stickers anyway.

WW Is NOT Against Skipping Breakfast

At last week's meeting, a member said that she does not eat breakfast.  The substitute leader told  her that WW strongly encourages people to eat breakfast, and one reason was because eating breakfast stokes the metabolism. I wanted to say something to the woman, but  I did not because I haven't lost a significant amount of weight yet, whereas the sub leader lost 125 pounds. I felt vindicated, and relieved, with what I saw in the WW Weekly booklet for March 4 - 10, 2012.  On page 2, "Overheard in Meeting Rooms":
Q: " Do you have to eat breakfast to start up your metabolism?"
WW response: "No.   Your metabolism is always running. That said, eating breakfast helps boost your energy -- and get your day off to a good start."
[WW put the word "No" in bold font, just as I typed here]

Kudos to Weight Watchers! I am happy that they are not riding hard on the breakfast bandwagon. As for the second sentence, it may be true for some people. I hope the member reads this section of this week's booklet.  I would have pointed it out to her had she been at the meeting I attended this morning.

Update 3.4.12

I lost one pound. I am happy for the loss.  I have lost a total of 1.6 pounds in 4 weeks. Granted, I have not been IF'ing. So this week I will start, and as a reward I will purchase a blazer I've had my eye on (hopefully there's some left in my size). I should have lost at least 3 pounds by now; however, there's no point in beating myself over the past and I won't. I'll celebrate my success and my steps in the right direction, and move forward.                  

WW Meetings + IF = Success?

On February 5, 2012 I joined Weight Watchers to help me with accountability. There are weigh-ins at every meeting, that you're supposed to attend at least once per week. Just knowing that someone else knows my weight before I do and can see whether I'm misbehaving is helping me stick with IF (I put my scale far away, to further help me focus on setting lifestyle habits). There's really no room for excuses in such circumstances. My first meeting and weigh-in was on February 11, 2012. On my second weigh-in, I gained 1.2 pounds. The woman who weighed me looked me in my eyes, asked me what happened and what did I plan to do about the weight gain, and would not let me leave to join the meeting until I provided a thoughtful answer and plan in response to her questions. She wasn't nice or mean, just matter-of-fact and no-nonsense. I needed that. This week all I could think about was her demeanor, the shame I felt and that I really wanted to behave so that I could have a more pleasant weigh-in this week. And that is what happened.  A different woman weighed me today, and she smiled as she told me that I'd lost 1.8 pounds. So my total loss since joining WW has been .6 pounds. That's okay; it's .6 less than I weighed two weeks ago.

I also joined WW because I need to relearn portion sizes (that will be the topic next week, so I'll be sure to leave my residence earlier than usual so that I can be seated at the start). I know I eat way too much in one sitting.  I need to learn that no matter how many meals I have in a day, foods I have on the plate/bowl should be in  X portion sizes. I hope WW helps me with that. I think it will when I calculate my points everyday; my goal is not to go over my Daily Point Total. After a little experimentation, I realize that I'm almost guaranteed to stay within my point total when I IF, all without having to pay an exorbitant amount of attention to food.

IF Calendar ending 1.28.12

Here is another picture of my calendar for the month of January 2012  (I blotted out personal notes to myself). As you can see, I've earned only 4 stars this week (eat only dinner; social breakfast, social lunch, and one snack during office lunchtime are okay). So far, I've followed the rule for 8 days this month. I have 3 more days to follow the rule and earn 3 more stars. I'll post again next week.