Excuses and A Word of Warning

For the past few weeks, five to be exact, I have been complaining that I have been battling a cough that doesn't seem to go away.  Last week, I went back to my primary care doctor.  She suggested that, since my blood pressure has been under control, that I stop taking one of my BP medications that can sometimes cause a chronic cough.  So I stopped taking it last Friday.  It's been five full days that I've been off of this medication.  I was not warned by the doctor (I intend to speak to her about this!) that I could expect withdrawal symptoms from this medication.  So for the past three days I have had a headache, felt excessively tired, and nauseous at times.  Today I finally woke up without a headache.  We'll see!  So why do I mention this as it relates to my weight battle?  For one thing, it weighs into my excuses for not exercising.  When you have a headache & can hardly keep your eyes open, the last thing you want to do is any activity!  Last Wednesday and Friday I did walk for at least 10 minutes.  I even avoided an excuse to not walk (it was raining!) on Friday by going to the mall and walking.  Monday I did not walk because of my malaise.  I did go to my handbell rehearsal which earned me activity points.  I didn't track very well last week -- probably about 1/2 of the week.  Gotta get better!

So now to the weight results for the week -- and this is where my "word of warning" comes in.  I gained 4.4 pounds this week!  Aaaagggghhhh!  Then I realized I had stopped this medication -- a medication that is combined with a drug that acts as a water pill.  I can't really see any other reason why I would gain that much in one week!  So I'm not going to hit myself over the head (that would cause another headache!) and get back on track this week with tracking & adding activity.

Hope you all have a wonderful week.

Stress Tamer

This week's WW meeting topic was stress tamers and yes, I'm probably a stress eater.  We all have a certain amount of stress in our life, but I feel I'm a boredom eater & an emotional eater.  Also, I'm a "I don't have enough energy" eater, and that has been my culprit the last couple of week.  I haven't been feeling well for over a month, and I'm still fighting having enough energy to care, to cook healthy, to add activity to my week.

So last week, I shared that I was surprised that I had lost a pound.  Well this week, I wasn't surprised that I had gained 1.2 pounds.  So I'm about even to where I was last week.  My walking goal for last week was to walk Wednesday, Thursday & Friday.  I only walked on Wednesday.  But on Monday, my daughter & granddaughter & I went to Disney World and that meant a whole lot of walking!  My tracking grade for last week is a C-.  I did eat breakfast every day.

So for this week, I'm going to get back on track.  I'm going to track 100% and eat breakfast every morning.  I'm going to walk 20 minutes on Wednesday, Friday & Monday.  That will be enough until I get feeling better & have more energy.

Hope you have a good week.

Climbing the Mountain Again!

Last week was another week of struggles and I did not expect a weight loss.  However, I was pleasantly surprised that I lost a little over a pound.  So I'm almost back to 6.6 pounds that I had lost three weeks ago.  

Here's my report card for the week:

Morning Breakfast = A

Tracking = F

Adding Activity = A

The tracking is self-explanatory based on the grade!  However, I did successfully walk Wednesday, Thursday, & Monday for 10 minutes each day.  That was my new, realistic goal for adding activity last week.  I also earned activity points on Tuesday for my Handbell Rehearsal.  And on Friday, I went shopping with my mother in a quaint little downtown shopping area, so I probably earned 1 activity point for that.  Also, I realized that I would be doing that on Friday, so I walked my 10 minutes on Thursday instead of Friday.

My goal for this week is to get back to tracking 100%, continue to make eating breakfast every morning a priority, and increase my walking goal.  My goal is to walk 20 minutes on Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday.  I also have to do some deep cleaning (vacuuming, changing sheets, moving furniture to vacuum behind, dusting, etc.) because my daughter & granddaughter are coming on Sunday and we're going to Disney on Monday.  Yes, one of the perks of living in central Florida & having friends that work at Disney!  So that's why my goal is going to be to walk on Wednesday, Thursday & Friday because on Monday I'll be walking a lot around Disney World.

So we'll see how this week goes.  Hope you all have a great week!

It's Been Another Rough Week

Okay.  I learned my lesson last week -- it wasn't a bad week, it was a challenging week -- a rough week.  I've been sick for a couple of weeks & that has probably contributed to not having a successful couple of weeks.  So confession of the week -- I gained 1.2 pounds this week, a total of 1.8 pound gain during the last two weeks.  However, my net loss is 5.4 pounds for 5 weeks -- about a pound a week which still is respectable.

This week's topic during WW meetings was tracking.  Our leader asked us to give ourselves a grade.  Last year and probably several years preceding that I would have given myself an F.  But since I've started this blog & added this additional layer of accountability, I would give myself an A for the first 3 weeks and probably a C+ or B- for the last two weeks.  Even though there have been weeks that I have gone over my points, I still tracked everything & that red negative weekly points number appeared very boldly on my computer.  

So this week my goal is to get back on track (no pun intended), track everything, eat breakfast daily, and to continue my journey of adding activity to my week.

Last week I walked 2 out of the 3 days that I had planned and besides my evening of handbell rehearsal (which I count as an activity) I added 10 minutes of alternative activity to one of my walking days.  So this week I'm going to make my activity goal more realistic & obtainable.  I will walk for 10 minutes on Wednesday, Friday & Monday and 10 minutes of activity on Thursday.

Hope you have a great week.