Weigh-in

I gained 3.6 pounds this week. Ridiculous, I know. I just can’t commit to any type of weight loss lately.

I think know why, but I just can’t really allow myself to admit it. As silly as it sounds, I am putting all my effort and extra time into this grammar class that I am taking. It’s spreading me too thin to even think about weight loss, much less leave me the willpower to do anything with it. Good news: I suspected from the beginning that this would happen. In the back of my mind I’ve been telling myself, “Just maintain your weight until April, Kelly. Get through this class then start to lose again.” But outwardly I don’t want to admit I am unable to do both. Or rather, I don’t have the energy to do both. I’m sure lots of people can do both. I, however, find it incredibly challenging.

So here’s the deal. It’s silly to find a scapegoat for my lack of weight-loss vigilance. So I won’t. I love my grammar class and it’s helping me tremendously with my job as an editor. I wouldn’t trade it for anything right now. I’m blessed to be able to take it (what employer do you know that would pay for a class and fully support their employee leaving the office at 1 p.m. three days a week??? Not many, I’m sure). Maintaining my weight during this semester is okay with me.

However, last week, I started to re-evaluate my eating. Just some small things. I made the decision to switch some settings in my Weight Watchers tracking plan. On the old program, you used your activity points the same day you earned them. Your extra weeklies were used for any other overflows. On this new program, activity points are fair game all week long ON TOP of your extra weeklies. I was a little skeptical of that since a workout on Monday doesn’t negate overeating on Friday. I found out a while ago that you could switch this around in your WW tracking settings so your activity points were used the same way as they were on the old plan.

So I did that. Now, every day I work out and earn activity points, any points I go over come directly from my activity points. If I don’t work out that day and I still eat over, then they come out of my extra weeklies. AND, each day my activity points reset. So I earn 5 activity points on Monday and don’t use any of them, by Tuesday my activity points reset to 0. Watching those activity points build up sometimes makes you believe you can eat anything you want all week long. Or maybe that was just my attitude becoming lazy.

Also, starting yesterday, I started weighing my food again. I’ve been eyeballing. This allows me to trick myself into thinking I’m eating less than what I really am. Imagine my horror when I found out I’ve been tracking chicken breasts as 4 oz. when really they average 8.7 oz. according to my food scale. Holy shit! I’ve been under-tracking for months now! I’ve been tricking myself into believing that I was eating less than I actually was.

In addition, I’ve been cheating with the things I HAVE been measuring. I’ve been heaping my peanut butter measurements. Last night, when I packed my lunch, instead of pretending that ½ Tbsp over-the-top-buldge of peanut butter was level, I actually leveled it off with a knife. And you know what? When I ate it this morning with my banana, it was perfect. I didn’t need any more than what I had.

So if I can’t fit in my regular killer workouts for a while, and I’m finding it challenging to step up my game in the eating department, the least I can do is measure fairly. Eat the same stuff, just measure. Right? Right.

I’m going to challenge myself to measure my food all week. I think I can manage that.

Weight loss this week: +3.6 pounds

Total weight loss: 37.4 pounds