Time to Try New Methods

I have a health coach that calls me once a month.  This health coach is provided to me by our health insurance for no cost and I have found it very helpful since I started utilizing the program a few months ago.  My health coach, Kim, and I make goals each month.  She then calls me at my scheduled time and we discuss my progress with those goals.

One goal that we have set since my first call was to handle weekends better.  Weekends have always been my tough part of my week.  I have always struggled on handling them correctly. Weekends were tough for me when I lost the weight back in 2007 and still are a struggle in 2013.  As I was thinking about Kim's upcoming call a month ago I decided that I was going to change my goal a bit. Our specific goal for me was that I would track every weekend.  I decided that I was tired of trying to achieve that goal.  I wondered if it were possible for me to lose these last pounds and keep them off without tracking on the weekends.  I was tired of having a goal that I would rarely achieve.  After a weekend of no tracking I would just feel guilty about the weekends and beat myself up as I started my week.  I decided that it was time to rethink my plan.  I wanted a plan that I could feel successful and lose the weight at the same time.  I decided to try a new experiment.

I knew that this experiment could result in failure but I thought it was worth the risk. I have tracked successfully for weekends from time to time but I don't think I've ever done it successfully for an extended period of time.  Since adding Sammy to our family and managing Bryan's switch in jobs a year and half ago, weekends have become crazier than ever.  One thing that I have always loved about Weight Watchers is that it can be flexible to different people's lives.  I wanted to make my program more flexible so it would fit my life.

These are the changes I made:

1. I started exercising 5 days a week (Monday through Friday) instead of 4 days a week (any days I chose that week).  I started exercising 1 hour per day instead of 45 minutes.  I knew that I was eating more over the weekends than my body needed so I needed to work a little harder on my exercising to burn those extra calories.  To me, working a little harder on my exercises during the week was worth the freedom to eat a bit more over the weekend.

2. I upped my minimum daily PointsPlus target.  I really thought about why I eat so much on the weekends.  One of the reasons was that I was just plain hungry.  I would stick to my daily points target all week but it just wasn't enough to keep me satisfied. I decided to add a few PointsPlus values each day to see what would happen.

3. I stopped tracking on the weekends.  I know that makes no sense.  After all, the goal that Kim and I set for me was to track on weekends.  That focus made me realize that I needed a change.  On 2 days every weekend I have stopped tracking.  On those 2 days I follow the Simply Filling Technique from the WW program.  I pay attention to my hunger signals, eat Filling Foods and treat myself with a limited amount of non-Filling foods.

This is working for me.  I have now lost weight for 3 weeks in a row.  I haven't lost weight 3 weeks in a row in a very long time.  With my weight loss from today I am now at the lowest weight I have been at since November.  I lost my "holiday weight."  Now I am ready to lose the rest of the baby weight.

I am really liking my new method.  It's giving me the freedom that I want on the weekends, enough food to keep me satisfied day after day, lots of exercise (my body is more toned than I have been since I had Sammy) and the structure that I need to lose those last pounds.

My health coach and I made a new goal at our last phone call.  I am now willing to admit that I am not happy keeping these last few pounds on my body. I want them gone and it's time to stop ignoring it for fear of hurting my ego.   My new goal is to finally get off those last pounds of baby weight.  Sammy is going to be 2 in June and as he begins to leave his babyhood behind I would like to leave his pregnancy weight behind too.

Making these new changes took a leap of faith and courage.  I had to be willing to fail and make changes along the way.  One mistake I made one week was that I gave myself a 3-day-weekend of no tracking.  I gained that week.  Every week that I have gave myself a no-tracking-2-day-weekend has resulted in a loss.  I will still have to reevaluate along the way but I love my new flexibility and my new, lighter self.

Have a good day,
Corinna

"The Rock, his work is perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God, without deceit, just and upright is he;" -Deuteronomy 32:4