What was hard for you this week?

While I weighed in on Monday, I didn't have time to stay for the meeting. I think that's what keeps you honest with Weight Watchers. Sitting through the meeting with other people, talking about successes and failures, how well you did and what you did to get through the hard times. I also can remember second guessing eating something that was bad because I didn't want to admit it during next weeks meeting.

I returned today to listen to the meeting for the week. It started off with the question - what was the hardest thing for you over the past week? For me, admitting it was time to come back. For others - exercising, a 60th wedding anniversary party and other general life things. Then we went on to talk about others forms of motivation. Self talk is a big one for me and I shared that I often have to remind myself that sometimes what I'm about to eat really isn't a special treat. Like, tomorrow for halloween, I don't need to eat 5 mini Snickers, because honestly, I can eat them any time of year. Or on Thanksgiving, I can make stuffing every Friday if I want. No need to gorge myself with it on one day.

Lately, Kara (Neale's cousin) and I have been motivating each other by finding motivational sayings on Pinterest and either Instagraming them or texting them to each other. Every day is it's own challenge and each day it should get easier. It's so important to remember the WHYS. Why am I doing this? Why do I need a little extra help? Why do I struggle with food? Each question has it's own answer.

I'm in day 2 of the Assessment phase for my Active Link and took Body Combat tonight. Usually I take the 30 minute version which is tough enough - so tonight I tried the hour. I love Jacob, the teacher. He's got a sense of humor and is super motivating. I survived the hour long session of Combat and look forward to taking it again next week. It feels so good to be back in my routine - and succeeding at making good choices!

Fresh Starts

The best thing about Monday's is they often mean a fresh start for anything and everything. It's the beginning of the work week - you may have gone nuts over the weekend resulting in the beginning of getting back on track - or just decided to start something new.

For me, this past Monday was kind of admitting defeat. To step back a few, I bought my wedding dress in June where I was a slim 141 pounds. After I had gotten engaged, I immediately started watching what I was eating, stuck to 3 meals a day, got in good amounts of cardio and was in a great place mentally and even with my health! This past weekend, I had to endure a Patient First visit and after glancing over at the scale, I have apparently gained 12 pounds in the last 6 weeks (148-160). Weighing in at 160. I couldn't believe it! I know I had some fun over the last few months, but I honestly didn't think it was 19 pounds of fun from when I bought my dress!

So, Monday I immediately marched myself back into Weight Watchers and signed back up. I had made LifeTime in 2006 and have always had a little weight fluctuation, but never that high. I was mad at myself, I felt defeated and knew I could do better, but didn't know why. But, when I stepped on their scale, I only weighted 156. Hey! That's a 4 pound difference from the day before. Not ideal, but definitely made me feel a little bit better. This time around, I also bought the Active Link which is Weight Watchers new tool to calculate Activity Points. I. CAN. DO THIS. I've done it before, I can do it again.

It always seems like the first week is the hardest, and this week I can't calculate any activity points since the Active Link is in it's Assessment phase. So, I'm trying my hardest to stay on point each day.

So, here we are, back at it again - I've got the working out thing down... now it's time to lock in the eating so that 102 days from now, I can rock that dress with pride!

Your goals? Guess what... they take work!

That's right. Change doesn't happen immediately. As with most things, you need to take each day - one at a time.

When I decided to go back to weekly Weight Watchers meetings, I had come to the realization that the 13 pounds I had gained over the last year and a half, weren't going to come off over night. I think most people finally realize they are ready to embark on the mission when they come to some sort of realization, like - the need to buy new clothes because your size is going up, being tired of feeling sluggish, fed up with how you look and feel. When this realization happens, you are more likely to pick a plan and stick with it. Because you realize that results don't happen overnight.

For the past week and a half, in the middle of the night I've been waking up. Why? This morning I realized it's because I am SO excited to get up and do my TurboFire workout that I literally lay awake in bed and think about it. It's helping me get more into a routine with working out in the morning and I LIKE THAT! During my workout when my CD skipped this morning and I needed to take it out - I put in a CD I knew would work. I was so amped to workout, that I was ready to do anything!

Once my workout was complete, I made my breakfast of chocolate Shakeology with two tsp of PB, a banana, 8 ounces of water and 4 ounces of skim milk.

I was in such a great mood that I was ready to begin my day. My mood was so great, that it was noticeable to those around me. What a great start to the week!