Phew!!!

Oh, thank goodness. I was so bummed out last week about losing track and gaining 3 pounds. I was a lot better this week -- even though I still can't get myself to be disciplined enough to track every day on WW, I was much better about what I ate and being a little more active. And it paid off, I lost 1 pound this week. Hooray!

I'm going to update the little ticker above... the 42 lb goal is looking a little intimidating lately, so I'm going to adjust my expectations and start with a goal of 20 pounds. Let's hope that's a little more achievable. I've totally done it before. Fingers crossed!

A New Goal

Well, y'all know I've had my ups and downs on WW this year. On *and off* of WW, if I want to be accurate...

But now I have a new goal in mind that I plan to work towards, and it's a long-term goal so I actually think it might be achievable if I stick to my guns.

One year from today, I will be a bridesmaid in the wedding of a very good friend, surrounded by a few other very good friends. My goal is to get to a point where I will be happy with the way I look. I know it will be a wonderful day no matter what, but I would be that much more excited about it all if I could reach a point where I'll like the way I'll look in a dress.

So, I'm now setting an actual numeric goal. Yikes! I would *LOVE* to get back down to the "skinniest" I've been in my adult life. That would be back to where I was 6 years ago, when I first did WW and was really smart and disciplined about it.

What is that number? (Holding my breath.) 42 pounds.

The number's pretty scary, I'll admit. But I've done it before, and that was just over 4 months. Let's see how well I do over 12 months. Really, that's only 3 1/2 pounds a month. That doesn't seem quite as scary, now does it?

My 10-Week Challenge

I have decided to give myself a reason to get back in the swing of things.... 10 weeks from today is our Gala at work. I have to dress all nice and there are lots of pictures taken, and I'd really like to feel good about how I look. It also marks one year since I fell off the wagon and put on about 15 pounds of stress eating getting ready for the Gala 2005. And trust me, this year is MUCH more stressful, so I need to focus on being good rather than just letting it all go.

So, over the next 10 weeks, I plan to....

• Track my points, even if I don't stick to my daily allowance. Just keeping track of what you eat makes you much more aware and accountable for your intake.
• Work in more fruits and veggies and cut back on the salt and starch.
• Eat more seafood and experiment with cooking some fish.
• Exercise! Try to do some kind of non-commute-related (as in don't just count walking to the Metro) workout 5 days a week.
• Combine strength training with just the usual cardio that I have done in the past.
• More water! Less soda and Starbucks.

I would love to shoot for a 10 pound loss over these 10 weeks, but I don't want to put too much pressure on myself with a number. I hope that sticking to these priorities will help with that scale, too!

You know I'll be charting my progress here, so stay tuned....and wish me luck!