Wednesday Weigh-In (just one day late)

I think that I go to bed too early to do these things on the day that they get posted!! (either that or I'm just a slacker!!)

Keeping Motivated

1. What sort of things do you do to keep yourself motivated while loosing weight?
I have found that visualization is working for me right now. I keep thinking about what I'm going to look like down the road and that keeps me going. I have also found that exercise is a huge part of the motivation for me. I can't justify an eating binge that will undo all the good / hard work I've put in to exercising.

2. With your progress so far, have you seen any changes in yourself?
Oh definitely. I've noticed a difference in the way some of my clothes are fitting me, in particular my sweaters and tops. I've been measuring myself every week and (so far!) every week I've lost a little bit. I also notice that my feet and ankles don't get swollen anymore and I've had to move the buckle dealy on my sandals because they were falling off of my feet. That may sound funny but it's true!

3. Who, if anyone, is your health idol or even mentor?
I don't have just one. I find that my inspiration comes from the women I've been meeting through these blogs and chat forums. I'm getting more support and encouragement from them than I have from any professional health person!

I had a totally perfect food day, beyond perfect. We went out for dinner and everything, I even had some pretzels tonight for a snack!! Something about recovering from a back injury really kills your appetite. Tonight when we went for dinner, I had a Santa Fe grilled chicken salad at Swiss Chalet. It was so yummy, lovely greens with balsamic dressing and a chicken breast on top. It's actually under 300 calories and has less than 10 g of fat and it was really filling and tasty. My back is still giving me some trouble so I'm still not able to exercise. I'm really pleased with myself about the food thing though. It would be so easy for me to slip back in old habits with this happening but I'm sticking to it! Yay me!!

I checked for these on Monday but didn't see them up. They're up now though....this week's Progress Prompt is:

List your three favorite kitchen appliances/tools/gadgets. Why are they vital/critical to your weight loss program?

My favourites would be my Kitchen Aid mixer, Oster Rice Cooker and my breadmaker. They all help me with my program. The mixer, I inherited from my mother-in-law. I got it a couple of years ago and can't imagine life without it now. I often bake muffins to have for breakfast and the mixer makes baking (and yes, I bake from scratch!) so easy!! The rice cooker is a fairly new acquisition and we're using it almost daily. We eat a lot of brown rice and it is so quick in the cooker and the cooker is incredibily easy to clean up. The bread maker is also relatively new. Neither hubby nor I are eating much bread these days but when we do, it's whole wheat, home made, no preservatives bread. We know exactly what is in it and that it's not processed and containing lots of words that have "z" in them. So yeah, these all help out with our eating program! They're definitely helping us to make easier meals and subsequently, we're eating out a lot less.

I had a great day foodwise today. Totally back on routine and on plan again today after struggling the past few days. I'm still on the mend but feeling much better than I have done in days. Things should get back to normal tomorrow (hopefully). Sorry for the lacklustre posts but it's not been easy to sit in front of the machine recently. Hopefully regularly scheduled programming will resume in a day or two.

It's my "measuring monday" again and despite the fact that I've been out of commission as far as exercising goes, and I had the Nibs & Pretzels episode yesterday, I'm down another 2 inches since I began this 4 weeks ago. That's a total of 10.5 inches lost to date. Wow, four weeks. It feels like it's just flown by and it's been a small lifetime all at once. I've found the past couple of days, since I've not been feeling well, to be a bit of a struggle. I think it's due to the inactivity and the boredom. I'm doing pretty good though. Partly because there isn't really any "junk" in the house anymore but mostly because I don't want to undo all the good stuff I've been doing for myself over the past four weeks!

I'm still feeling crummy, still basically immobile. I kept on track with my food despite a weekend munchie attack which involved some pretzels and nibs. Fortunately, we had a late breakfast and no lunch (and early dinner) so I wasn't too badly off of my plan. At the end of the day I was okay although today was another day of basically no exercise. I really want to feel better tomorrow, keeping my fingers crossed!!

In the past, when I would get really stressed out, or if I slept the wrong way in a drafty room, my back would seize up. Today, for no apparent reason (although I suspect that I may have twisted something the wrong way yesterday while taking the vaccuum downstairs, it's done it again. I've been in bed, flat on my back all day. I dragged myself out to dinner with my father-in-law and I'm in agony now so I'm heading back to the heating pad. I know that in a day or so I'll be better but in the meantime, I'm not exercising (grrrr). I have been eating okay though. Although, if I had anything remotely fattening in the house, there was a moment this afternoon, in a fit of frustration, that I would have totally consumed it. Thankfully, that wasn't a bridge I had to cross. I'm off to bed, I'll keep you posted!