health & fitness | dianaschnuth, Page 44

My plan for February was to plan.

I didn’t plan. At the beginning of the month, I had a hard time even giving a shit.

I want food, I’m eating. My tracker’s in the negative? Pfft. At least I’m still tracking. And my FitPoints will make up for my indiscretions by the end of the week, anyway.

As the month progressed, my attitude fluctuated. First it improved, then it would tank once I had a couple bad days in a row that couldn’t be remedied by just eating my FitPoints. It tanked when I failed to meet every weekly goal I set for myself. It tanked even worse when I gained three pounds in a single week of not giving a shit.

I guess that was me hitting bottom, because I decided the next morning — when I saw I’d gained another pound in one day of way-stupid eating — to get serious about mindful eating again. Cue the photo food journal, where I photograph every meal and snack, then compile them into a collage and post to Twitter (because that’s easier than posting directly to my blog, honestly).

That first day of photo-journaling, I came in under my daily SmartPoints allowance (which never happens). The next morning, my body gave me a giant THANK YOU FOR EATING RIGHT AGAIN by shedding nearly three pounds in one day. Water weight, maybe. Giant shit, definitely part of it. Eating right instead of eating stupid? Definitely the main factor.

That last week in February was a good one for mindful eating, even with a surprise Indian buffet lunch (our favorite Indian joint didn’t used to have a lunch buffet, and no longer has our favorite thali combos available). At my weekly Weight Watchers weigh-in, I lost all 3.2 pounds I’d gained the previous week, plus an additional 1.6 pounds, for a total one-week loss of 4.8 pounds.

I’m going to continue photo-journaling my meals into March (posted weekly, though, rather than daily) and see how it helps me continue to eat mindfully.

(Note to self: might be time for a re-read of Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink.)

201602-weeklyweights

It surprises me every time I look at a photo of myself, or see myself in a mirror, and realize that I’m actually pretty pleased with how I look and feel. The good body-image days outnumber the bad ones by a long shot. Sure, I still have plenty of moments where I look down at my thighs or midriff and am disappointed by how far I have yet to go, but I have more moments of being pleased with how my clothes fit, or how my shoulders and collarbones look, or what my silhouette looks like overall. Or being pleased that I can run a couple of miles, or crush a kickboxing class, or nail that yoga posture I couldn’t quite get before, or let my 40-pound son climb on me like a jungle gym and not be worried that I’m going to throw my back out.

I’ve come so far. I have a few pounds yet to reach my weight goal — but, honestly, the rest is just gravy.

Non-Scale Failwhale:

Thought Chinese-American sounded good for lunch, since I was already over my Points for the week, anyway. The first half tasted pretty good, the second half tasted too sweet (but I kept eating), and the aftermath was a queasy stomach.
Could. Not. Quit. The homemade zucchini bread that a co-worker brought in (on weigh-in day, of course).

Non-Scale Victories:

I love making 3SP muffins! I tweak the recipes by subbing out healthier ingredients until they get down to three SmartPoints per muffin. My family and I love them so much, I’ve been baking two dozen muffins a week!
Better than solo yoga: when I decided to do some solo yoga using Doug’s Spotify playlist when he was out, another yoga practitioner came in and asked to join me. Catherine and I each did our own thing, and it was pretty awesome. Also, I kicked my own ass doing 40 minutes of yoga.
My photo-journaling kept me from evening eating when I thought I was hungry. Instead, I drank some water, and then some green tea infused with sliced ginger root, and I was fine. Who knows how much I would have eaten if I hadn’t felt accountable to that food journal I’d already posted?

Non-Food Rewards: