Weight Loss Wednesday: Sticking to it

Saturdays are my Weight Watchers meeting days. I lost 2 pounds, which isn’t a lot by “Biggest Loser” standards, but I also have a full time job and can’t work out all day, so for me, it was great news!

As I was sitting in my meeting, I started thinking about what keeps me from sticking to a weight loss plan “long term.” I HAVE successfully done Weight Watchers in the past and even made it to “Lifetime” status, but after I started having babies, sticking to it has been difficult for me. I have re-started Weight Watchers and tried other new diets along the way more times than I can count and I’m always really excited and motivated when I first start and then a few weeks into I lose that momentum and so I was trying to figure out why….

The conclusion that I came to is that “life happens.” I’m sure many of you are well acquainted with life. It looks something like this ~ you get home from work, and your kids have soccer practice, so you all pile in the car for that and then you get home and there is still homework to be done and you can’t wrap your mind around what you want for dinner, so you decide to go through a drive thru. You know there’s nothing there that’s on your “diet” but that’s OK because tomorrow’s another day. Except tomorrow, at work, someone decides to bring in donuts and they’re in the breakroom and they look so good and just one won’t hurt, and it’s OK because you can get back on track “tomorrow.” And then tomorrow comes and you were up so late the night before that you’re too tired to follow through with your exercise plan. And then tomorrow turns into tomorrow which turns into weeks and months of excuses.

One of the reasons I decide to blog about my experiences this time around is so I have accountability and I don’t lose momentum and follow in the same pattern (it also helps that one of my best friends is getting married in June and I not only want to be able to fit into, but I also want to look halfway decent in, the bridesmaid dress!).

In Mama Notes “Body After Baby” challenge, she has a weekly question. This week’s question is: Why do you you want to lose weight and/or get healthier? What is your motivation?

I have known I needed to lose weight for awhile now, but I think that having to wear that bridesmaid dress in June is the motivation that kicked it into gear for me! My long term motivation, though is that I am doing this for myself and for my family. There are a number of health concerns in my family’s history and I want to make the changes now so that I can be healthy for my family long term.

Having said all of that, here’s how I’m doing so far this week on my “plan” to meet my goal of losing 10 pounds by 2/14/10:

*Commit myself to Weight Watchers ~ I tracked like crazy this week and it has been awesome! Through tracking, I have been able to stop and think about different foods and ask myself if something is really “worth” 2 or 3 points when I can eat something else that is only 1 point? A couple of times this week, I have actually had a hard time eating all of my points and I haven’t touched my flex points yet!

*Drink more water ~ I have forced myself to make sure I get in all my water this week and what a difference it has made! (Sugar free chewing gum has helped a lot, too!)

*Create an exercise plan for each week ~ I’m back on track with my “Couch Potato to 5K” plan. I’m hoping I’ll be ready to run (not walk) a 5K in the spring! I’ve also continued to use the work-out generator at Spark People to generate strength training work-outs for me.

How did your week go? Feel free to link up and share below!