Food column: All stickers this week. Pass! I had some great achievements. Yesterday, for example, people were enjoying tortilla chips and guacamole. In a moment of weakness, I reached for the bag thinking I would only have one chip. With my arm fully stretched out, my brain kicked in and shouted, “NO!” I pulled my hand back and walked away. I love the taste of tortilla chips, but they are practically the kiss of death. Every time I have eaten them I don’t lose weight.
Exercise column: All stickers this week here too. Pass! I’m loving how I feel because of working out. I’m even completing my usual distance on the elliptical in a shorter time. I’m really happy with my improvement in this area.
Water column: So did I do it? Did I get all stickers in all columns this week? YES! All stickers here too. I found that drinking when I’m thirsty (after my 64 oz requirement) brought me to over 128 oz almost every day. Water is an amazing thing.
People are always surprised that I drink so much water and often think I must love the taste of water. That is true, but there are cases that I would rather have something with more taste. (Shh, don’t tell anyone…) When that happens, I put one of those flavor pouches in my water. There’s a ton of brands that offer them these days and you can find them a lot of places. (Just be sure to watch the sugar content.)
I usually drink my flavored water right after lunch because one of my habits has always been to have something sweet after I eat. My raspberry flavored water tastes like juice to me and it satisfies that sweet habit.
That made me think of something. After dinner is my biggest trigger to want to eat something sweet. Someone gave me a tip that utilizes a few ingredients allowed on The Maker’s Diet that helps me with my dire sweet cravings. Combine 1 Tbsp organic cocoa powder, 1 Tbsp honey, and 1 tsp coconut oil. Heat in microwave for about 20 seconds and mix. Chocolate! I have tweaked it to my specific taste so it ends up more like 1 ½ - 2 Tbsp organic cocoa powder, ½ - 1 Tbsp honey, and 1 tsp+ of coconut oil. It is so good and it’s not much volume wise, but it is completely satisfying. I only have it one or two times a week and sometimes I can’t even finish it because it tastes so sweet.
Lose 2.2 lbs this week?: Yes! I lost 2.25 lbs this week. Pass! Since my first milestone date is on Sunday, and I’m 10.25 lbs away from it, it’s obvious I’m going to fail to reach my goal. It’s disappointing. I hate failing. I’m proud of the progress I’ve made though.
I am going to roll over whatever weight I haven’t lost for this milestone into the next one. It just goes to show, every week matters. You can’t count on the ability to catch up because the variables change all the time and you won’t know which ones you’re dealing with.
My goal for next week is to lose 3.5 lbs. Why? Because that will put me in the next 10 lb range. I hate being in this 10 lb range and I’m so close to being out of it. My best chance to lose 3.5 lbs will be to get all stickers again so I guess I have a double goal next week.
How will I feel if I reach my goal this week?: I will feel like I have taken a full step forward and moved into a new phase. It’s all about movement and momentum, right? Renewing my motivations and drives keeps things fresh and helps me take little steps. After all, this is a game of baby steps…only Olympians do the long jump.
How will I feel if I don’t reach my goal this week?: Ugh…I don’t even want to think about that. I would probably feel like I’m in a boat in the middle of a lake….without oars. It feels like I’ve been in this 10 lbs for a long time. I’m ready for a new 10 lbs!
Since I’m on the verge of failure, I’ve been thinking about how we treat ourselves when we fail. We seem to have infinite understanding and support for others when they’ve failed, yet we treat ourselves so terribly when we fail. If you are in a place where you are really upset, or perhaps you have failed and you are tempted to beat yourself up because you feel that is what you deserve, consider this: To fail and learn something from it is a valuable experience. To fail and punish yourself for it has the potential to stall your progress. Isn’t failing reaping what we’ve sewn? The consequence of our actions? Isn’t failing punishment enough?
Choose to learn from failure or choose to beat yourself up. Either way you will eventually have to stand up again. It might as well be sooner. Plus if you learned from your failure, you will know one path that didn’t take you where you wanted to go. Finding what doesn’t work can sometimes help us narrow down what does work.
If you have failed, like me, and are having a hard time with it, ask yourself: Did I really think I would get to the end with a perfect track record along the way? If that’s the case, prepare yourself, your expectations were unreasonable. It’s not possible to be perfect.
Here’s the silver lining and a thought you can carry with you: You don’t have to run a perfect race…you just need to cross the finish line. It won’t matter if you’re bruised, limping, or even on crutches. Just finish the race!
Total weight loss: 14.1 lbs
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