Everyone’s read the quote that says one should eat to live, not live to eat. (I’ve seen it attributed to at least three different authors.) I’m learning many things as I fight my way through the third week of my “program”, and this is one of them. I can’t count the number of times I make a trip to the kitchen, not because I’m truly hungry, but just because… Fill in the blank. Most times, I can slap myself on the wrist and pour another glass of water and walk away. But then there are those chocolate-cookie-moments that I give into and then wind up feeling digusted with myself. I’ve had a bit of a pity party today. I neglected my food journal. I drank a minimum of water. I had a pretty good day, but I felt like I had really cheated MYSELF. And it’s not a nice feeling. Furthermore, it’s the same old pattern coming back to haunt me. And THAT is what this journey is all about — changing those old patterns and habits. Not making excuses. Do, or do not.

So, I reset all my values on SparkPeople. I’ve adjusted some of my goals, adding a little less food and a little more exercise. The party is over and I’m ready to put my nose to the grindstone again. I refuse to let those slips become major crashes.

And so it goes. DO, OR DO NOT. (I think what he really meant was shi* or get off the pot!)

I can feel myself slipping a little this week. Fortunately, I have 21/2 more days before my weigh in during which I can hopefully redeem myself. I have not been journaling everything I eat. I thought, oh, I’ll just keep up with it in my head. That never works, by the way…I’ve done this before.

I have nibbled more this week and drank less water. I have loosened the reigns too soo. I’m not even close to my goal OR my 10 percent. So, I need to crack down and I need to now.

By the way, if anyone is looking for a good WW cookbook, there is one sold in grocery stores right now called 15 minutes or under meals and it is VERY good. I’ve liked most of the things I have made out of there.

Ok, so, here’s my self pep-talk. I vow to do more blogging on this site, journal all my foods eaten, workout like a mad woman, drink more water. Ready…break!!!!

That’s something I have to work on. I’ve been working on retraining myself in how I think. Moving away from the instant gratification/medicate myself with food proclivities that got me into this trouble in the first place.

I keep thinking to myself instead: if I can stick to my plan, and even when I eat off of plan (like this weekend for our anniversary dinner) always go back to the plan as well as get myself out of the house (or in the house for the matter) and off my big ass and moving…well it’s perfectly realistic to lose between 5 and 10 lbs per month. And if I do that, why I’ll be anywhere from 50-100 lbs lighter by my birthday in October.

And won’t that be a better place to be than where I am now? And where I am now (or worse) is exactly where I will be if I try to be too restrictive or if I just give up.

I’m not going to do that. I can be patient. Especially if it means being any amount lighter than I am now….instead of the same or worse.

I don’t weigh in for another couple of days, but I have stepped up my exercise and I have been watching my portions a bit more. I hope this helps me to bid farewell to this plateau! My clothes feel a lot looser, so I hope this means a good weight loss.:blush:

“Remember “she said, in a voice so chirpy that I wanted to snatch her bald headed, “A Set-Back is just a Set-up for a Break Through!”

(I instantly wanted to vomit on her shoes! ) Honestly, where do they get these people? Are they cloned? Do they give them performance enhancing drugs? Do they put sublimital messages in their Alphabet Cereal every morning? Do they have a published book of cliches they hand out with a spoonful of sugar?

I was ready for the Chirpster this week! With the support of the HELPFUL HULK and you, my sisters of P2G, I faced the monster scale with head held high and WON! I lost 6.4 pounds!! (or as they say in Weight Watcher terms….25 sticks of butter!)

Now, scale lady was all smiles and graciousness! Now she accepted me with open arms, and eye contact!! At this point I was surprised not to have received the key to the City and a ticker tape parade! “Oooh, she gushed, “You certainly had a good week!”

I smiled sweetly( surpressing the urge to jump across the table and strangle her!) Scale Lady must have alerted the Chirpster (and probably the local news media) as she was all smiles and stood right by me as the meeting began. “Who has something they want to brag about?” she cooed encouragingly.

“Let the showdown begin!” I thought. So I played my part…..(ooh, 000h, choose me, choose me!) So I stood proudly and announced my wonderful weight loss to the sound of appropriate clapping and horn honking. “What did you do differently” she prompted!

“Absoluetly nothing”, I responded. ” I did everything just exactly like I did the week before when I gained 2 pounds! Only last week there was no affirmation. “No stay the course.” No smiles, no pats on the back, not even eye contact from the scale lady! ( side note: Oh yes I did, I named names!) I left the meeting last week feeling like a total failure, lower than dirt and vowed never to come back again. For a support group you ladies really suck!”

Surprise, surprise…..the room was silent!

One lady next to me said, “I lost .2 of a pound last week and felt so bad I didn’t even stay for the meeting. One by one others began to “testify” of having the same experience but being too embarassed to say anything about it.”

Chirpy turned to Magnolia (her real name is a flower name) and asked her to speak about how it felt not to lose any weight when you are doing everything right. Mags (who has lost 101 pounds…(for real ladies) or as we like to say in WW terms-404 sticks of butter) spoke honestly about having weeks when the scale didn’t want to cooperate with her body. There was no hype, no excessive sugar, just sweet sincerity that truly broke my heart. ( after the meeting I asked her if she would adopt me!)

I don’t know what the meeting was supposed to be about, but it actually turned into what it was intended to be all along , a support group.

I took full responsibilty for not bringing the topic up last week due to my hormonal roller coaster emotions. (Of course I felt free to rant about it with you all!)

Moral of the story: I feel like there are ladies at my “circus ” Weight Watchers meetings that have the same feelings and emotions and struggles I do. Shame on me for not taking the intitive and reaching out to them.

PS. My best friend who goes to the meetings with me and knows my intense love/hate relationship with WW suggested we attend another meeting in some other nearby cities where possibly the instructor wasn’t quite so perky and cute! (What? I said, “and miss my weekly blogging fodder? Are you crazy?”)

Well maybe it didn’t exactly happen that way……but it did to” my weigh of thinking.”