Wellness Wednesday: Back into a Routine

At my weigh-in last night I was down 0.8 pounds! Yay me! That brings my grand total to 15.8 pounds. Honestly, I would love to be down more. There was a woman who joined the same night I did and she is down 36 pounds now. But I am trying hard not to feel bad, because I still know I'm making the best progress I can right now.

I am going to be proud of the fact that I FINALLY returned to the gym on Monday night. The longer I'd been away, the easier it was to find excuses not to go. And I didn't sleep well on Sunday and had a bad headache because of that on Monday. So I went back and forth so many times: You can go to the gym on Wednesday instead, it will be fine...No, go tonight, you'll feel good! And maybe you'll stop having so many sleep problems...But this headache...But just go!  

So I told myself I could just go, I could stop after a half hour, and I could take it at the world's easiest pace. And I did just that. Usually once I make those promises to myself I end up going harder and longer (heh), but that didn't happen on Monday. I did my half hour and I was out of there. But I was nice and sweaty and relaxed! I finally got the big, scary return out of the way.

I also decided to try to give up counting Points on Monday, and go with a more flexible WW-inspired approach as well. I know what's been working--basically cutting out snacks between meals (even the healthy ones) and carby side dishes. Getting to the gym more times than not. Making good choices more often than not. And I've kept a cheat sheet of the meals I've had while losing weight as a quick reference.

Now the hard part: Finding out if I will still make progress without tracking every bite. I've gone through this before and usually I need to go back to counting eventually. But just as a life practice, I don't know that I can continue. Tracking puts me on the all-or-nothing diet mindset. I am a lot better than I used to be about that but there is still that tendency. I've read so much on intuitive eating to know what I need to do to have a healthy balance.

So that will be my plan for July: To make the healthy choices, to assess my hunger frequently and honestly, and to move as much as possible. We're planning two weeks of travel at the end of July and I think it's good I'll have a couple weeks of practice under my belt before then. I think if this works out I can actually maintain or even lose on vacation!