December Calculations

Its the first day of the last month of 2011. I would like to finish 2011 big and I in my opinion if I didn't lose anymore weight I would still finish big - 95lbs is a pretty awesome to me. I really want to not sabotage myself this last month and it is hard. I LOVE the food part of the holidays, baking and having the house smell of fresh baked cookies or other goodies. I walked past the baking display in the store yesterday - you know the one with corn syrup, cocoa, chocolate chips, baking mixes, oil, pie crusts, etc and I really just want to grab stuff and BAKE. But the joy of baking does not stop with the baking, 9.9 times out of 10 I also eat what I bake - I like dessert, yup its a big shocker that someone who used to weight 250lbs likes dessert :) The closer the holidays get the harder it is to keep my resolve to not give up for the month and start again on new years...I mean how much weight can I really gain? Let's see...I took 4 days last weekend and pretty much ate what I wanted and I gained 3lbs. So there are 31 days in December and if you divide by 4, that is almost 8. So 8 times 3 is 24 - 24!!! That is how much weight I could potentially gain if I "take the month off". Holy Crap - It did not occur to me to do the math until I was typing this post. If I gained 24lbs that would put me almost up to 180...the last time I was 180 was the middle of August. I would lose 3 1/2 months of progress. It would probably take me 3 1/2 months to get back to the point I am now. That's mid April. That is a long time to get back to where if I ignore my diet just one month. Now, I know chances are I would not gain the whole 24lbs....but I can't be sure and I AM sure that I don't want to take the chance. This wasn't really going to be the subject of my post but that is the good thing about having a blog - you start writing and the thoughts just come out and you realize things you wouldn't have otherwise. So that's that. I will stay on the course this next month. I will spend more time on plan with my eating than off.

Holiday Plan - Update

Sooooo I made a holiday plan a couple weeks ago and at my first real test I totally failed on sticking with it. Thanksgiving came and went and I "took a break" with my eating for the entire weekend. I feel ok with this except for the fact that I had made a different plan and didn't stick with it, very like the old me who would always fall off the diet wagon around Thanksgiving. I would always tell myself that I would get back on track Friday and it would always turn into Monday and then Monday came and it turned into waiting till New Years. If I don't get back on track today then I have a serious problem but I think I will be ok today, that is part of why I am writing this post. Hopefully, if I put it out there for everyone to read then I will be able to get back on track. I am pretty sure I can - much more sure than I would've have been in years passed. The good news is that I kept up with all my exercise this past weekend and I didn't gain too much weight. This is different than my behavior I the past. A lot of times if I was taking a break from dieting then I was taking a break from exercise as well. Also, I ran the 10k on Thanksgiving and it was awesome - I will do a separate post on it soon. I just wanted to write a quick post this morning to help keep myself on track today!

Holiday Plan

I decided about 3 minutes into Saturday that I wanted to take the weekend "off" from calorie counting and just enjoy the holiday weekend (read: eat candy). I was thinking I would still keep it under control and just indulge in a couple pieces of candy. Wrong. As soon as the first piece was gone there was no stopping me. I had a weekend of complete candy consumption. More sugar than I have put in my body in probably over a year. Now, I am OK with taking breaks and not worrying about what I eat for a couple of days, I think doing that makes it more possible to eat healthy long term. But this weekend was different. This weekend the old Amy sorta creeped out. I felt like I used to get when I was on a diet and decided to "take a break". I would eat WAY more than I needed to because I was going back to "dieting" on Monday. I was NEVER successful at getting back on a diet after a weekend of overindulgence. And this break had me feeling like that old Amy, just a bit. Not enough to freak me out completely, but enough to be aware that come Monday it would be more of an effort to get back to healthy eating than other breaks I have taken since I started this. I think part of it is that we are entering the holiday season and I am not sure how I am going to make it through this without completely falling off the wagon. I have a hard time during this time of year wanting to diet. Ordering iced green tea at Starbucks instead of a hot white chocolate mocha or making tacos for dinner (no cheese, sour cream, guacamole, beans) instead of lasagna. Something about the colder months makes me want to eat more comforting food. This is probably an excuse, maybe I am getting burned out - I'm really not sure. There is one thing I learned from this weekend: I am not perfect and I will have set backs. I need to not let myself get so down about setbacks that I give up completely. I need to plan ahead on how I am going to handle the upcoming holiday season. So here is my plan, in writing, for the holidays:

I Will....

• Stick with my lifestyle change everyday except for the following
• November 19-22 (Vacation)
• Thanksgiving
• Christmas Eve & Christmas Day
• Stick to my exercise schedule everyday - even the days above that I take off
• Only expect to lose a couple of pounds in the next two months - I would like to weigh 155 on January 1st 2011. If I can get through the next couple of months with even a tiny loss, I consider this a victory.

This is my plan for the holidays. Everyone needs a plan if they are trying to change their old habits - have you made yours?