Friday, January 9, 2009

Here's the Point Where I Start Growing Up

Something very depressing happened to me this morning. I stepped on the scale at WW and I hadn't lost anything. Zilch. Zero. Nada. Needless to say, I was pretty upset. After all, I mostly stayed within my points values (if you include activity points) and overall, I really didn't do any worse than I did last week, when I lost 4.6 pounds.

It's true that this week was a recovery week, so I went from 9.5 hours of riding to 5.5 hours of riding. However, in my head I had already factored that in. I fully expected not to lose as much as I did last week, but I expected to lose something.

The leader tried to calm me down a bit and told me not to get discouraged, but I was pretty miserable. I sat through the meeting, though, and the longer I sat there, the more things I thought of that I didn't do well. For example, when I work out a lot it's a no-brainer to drink tons of water. I need it and I crave it. But this week, I didn't ride as much and there were some days I neglected water completely.

The more I thought about the things I didn't do very well, the better I felt. This seems counterintuitive, but it really does make sense. After all, if I do everything right and I still don't lose weight, it means I actually have no control over whether or not I lose and that makes me feel powerless. It's not that I'm a control freak, but I do like to know that my efforts are making a difference.

That being said, I didn't beat myself up for the things I did wrong or didn't do as well as I could have. I just realized that my initial impression of how I did may be wrong and that to really tell how I did, I have to keep track of some of the things I haven't really been paying attention to thus far.

It also means that I have to look at things more closely. For example, if I'm staying within my points value by eating two Hostess 100 calorie twinkie packs, granola bars and WW pretzel thins a day, that's probably not the same as staying within my points values by eating fruits and vegetables for snacks.

I'll try paying a little more attention and being more mindful of my choices in the coming week and see if it makes a difference.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hang in there. Your mother-in-law gained a pound and Budz gained 2oz. I'm still the picture of health.. You'll kick butt next week.When we going to Arts.