So, is it technically a plateau if I’m not sticking to the Plan?
This mini-goal — what I had originally considered to be Goal With A Capital G — is increasingly more difficult to reach. I adjusted my target date once; I’m not going to do it again. Instead of focusing on the result, I’ve shifted my focus to the method.
I went all Susan Ito (aka Foodie McBody) and photo-journaled my food for a week. Yeah, it makes me one of those annoying people who posts pictures of their lunch online, but it also has the effect of making me think before I shove more food in my face. The first day, it definitely kept me from grazing (or bingeing) after I put Connor down for bed. I’d already tracked and photographed my daily food, including the glass of milk I’d saved for an after-dinner snack — and I didn’t want to lose face by having to photograph a stack of Biscoff cookies and post it, too. (Especially since I’d already put everything into a nice collage and posted it to Twitter and my blog.)
So, here for your review, are my meals for a week:
Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Day Four
Day Five
Day Six
Day Seven
I also took that week to paper-track, in addition to tracking on eTools. It forced me to count my Points myself, debiting from my total for the day until I hit Zero. Something about actually writing the numbers made it more real for me, and made it seem less appropriate to dip into my Weekly Points on a day when there was really no reason — no meal out with co-workers, no weekend dining with my family, and certainly no parties or get-togethers. The (in)convenience factor kicked in for the weekend, though, and while I continued to use eTools, I abandoned my paper tracker for the duration.
I also discovered that the free paper tracker includes a page at the beginning for planning. Just what I needed for that week! It also tells you that a target of 14 Points of exercise is recommended, which I didn’t know after all my years on the program. So, I planned out which days I’d need to add in a Point’s worth of yoga before bed, especially since I wouldn’t get a Friday walk or fitness class over lunch due to my monthly chiropractor appointment.
I’ve been kind of a data nerd goober lately (when am I not?) and have been calculating my Daily Average Points per week and per weekday. I haven’t found a correlation between Daily Average Points per week and weight loss amount, but I continue to calculate it. When I wrote down my averages on the planning page of my tracker, I was actually kind of taken aback. I mean, I knew the numbers, and I knew they were stupidly high, but I’ve been eating 42% more PointsPlus per day than the program allots for me.
Well, shit. No wonder I’m not losing weight!
Sure, I can say I was eating my Weekly Points or my Activity Points, but the truth is that I even went over those more often than not over the past several months.
The week that I photo-journaled my food, I lost 2.2 pounds. In the two weeks after that, I gained 1.8, then lost 0.8. It’s time to focus on planning ahead and being accountable again; I started photographing my food again today. Maybe I’ll start posting my food journals to #weightwatchershcr on Facebook instead of Twitter, though…
NSVs:
- Told by a lapsed WW At Work member in the elevator that I’m looking great. “What’s your secret?” she asked, and I gave her a knowing look and shrugged. She looked at me with a more sheepish knowing look and said, “I need to get back there.”
- Told by my chiropractor that she can really see my weight loss and that I “shouldn’t lose another ounce.” When I told her I’m planning to lose another ten pounds, she told me I’ll be way too skinny!
- Opted out of the free United Way Breakfast after attending the kickoff at my work.
- When I shared with my meeting that I’d been photo-journaling my food, I was told that it’s “admirable.” (I didn’t share to be admired, though — I shared in the hopes that it would help someone else.)
- My new size-14 ankle pants from WHBM are a little bigger in the waist that I would have expected. I know their sizes run large, but… maybe my exodus from the Plus Sizes is upon me soon.