Steady progress, no matter how small, is closer to goal!

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My weigh in at Weight Watchers on Thursday night showed a 1 pound loss, for a total loss of 97.4 pounds. I'm now 2.6 pounds away from my official WW goal weight of 143. I'm really going back and forth in my mind, trying to decide if I want to keep that as my goal weight or go a little lower. When I first started WW 2 1/2 years ago, I *never* imagined that I'd get to that weight, I really just wanted to get under 200 pounds. Now that I'm so close to my goal, it almost seems like 143 isn't a low enough weight...that alternates between sounding crazy to me and sounding perfectly reasonable. I guess I'll see how long it takes to get that last 2.6 off and see how I feel about my goal weight.
Had a huge non-scale victory yesterday- we went shopping for clothes for my son's mission trip that he's taking in 3 weeks, and while he was trying things on I browsed the clearance racks. I found three pairs of pants for work that I really liked for only $9 each- the problem was that they are all size 8. I took them into the fitting room with no expectation that I would even be able to put them on at all and all three pairs fit beautifully! I guess that I still see that size 22/24 body that I had before WW, which makes it kind of hard to shop for clothes! :) So, I bought all three pairs of pants and I'll be wearing one of them to work on Monday!
Reading a lot of weight loss blogs has been really helpful in my recent WW efforts, I am really enjoying keeping up with many other weight loss bloggers- keep up the good fight, we'll all get there eventually!

New PR (personal record) in more than one way!

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I did a 5K race (my sixth, I think) yesterday, the Belleair Sunset 5K and Fun Run. I was a bit concerned because I did my regular Saturday AM classes at the gym and I was worried I might have "emptied my tank" before the race even started, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I ran a personal record, finishing in 35:08, which was 17 seconds faster than my previous PR. The race was in a beautiful part of town, along golf courses and luxury homes. Plus (between the race & my AM gym group fitness classes) I racked up 19 WW activity points today- almost half of my activity goal for the week! After the race they had all you can eat beer, chicken wings, cookies, funnel cakes, fruit and hot dogs for the runners! I got a bit of everything for my cheering section (husband and son) but I stuck to a banana and water post-race, to avoid undoing any good weight loss mojo I earned at the race. :) My son took some pictures, but since I'm typing this on my work iPad I don't know how to add it here- will add some soon.
It was a good weigh in at Weight Watchers on Thursday, I was down 2.4 pounds (total loss= 96.4) and I finally set an official goal weight. I'm 3.6 pounds away from that goal, once I get there that will be an even 100 pounds lost. My current weight is another sort of personal record for me- I weigh a pound less than what I weighed at high school graduation (in 1987!) and this is my lowest weight ever as an adult! I am more than a little excited about this, lol. Now, there is just the matter of these last 3.6 pounds...might take a while but I'll get there.
I found a new food this week that is surprisingly good- a green monster smoothie. It's a cup of raw spinach, a frozen banana, 1 1/4 cups of unsweetened almond milk and a WW creme brûlée smoothie packet all run thru a blender for about 30 seconds. The end result is a nearly fluorescent green drink that is only 3 points and includes 3 fruit & veg servings, 2 milk servings and keeps me full until lunch! I know it sounds gross but it is seriously good....just think "Shamrock Shake" instead of "blended spinach" while enjoying it, lol.

Trust the process, but reserve the right to grumble about it :)

Thursday PM weigh in report: I was UP 2/10th of a pound at my WW weigh in last night. While I was hoping to make some progress on erasing that 5.8 pounds I need to lose to reach my ultimate WW goal, instead now I am sitting at 6 pounds to goal. I did everything as I should, I suspect it's just a reflection of my reduced gym time last week (which will be corrected this week). I usually get 45 to 50 or more WW activity points per week, this past week we were out of town all weekend and John had family visiting on Wednesday so I missed 4 of my regular gym classes and only got 30 APs. I'm gonna call it a "blip" in the progress, one of those weeks where the line does a little dance step instead of it's steady downward flow. So, I remind myself of the this Bob Harper quote and begin a new week. I'm really enjoying checking out everyone's blogs, especially the ones with pictures of the WW friendly meals- going to have to try out some new foods this week!

Weigh in report, and question for big losers

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Today was my weigh in day at Weight Watchers, I managed to stay on track this week and I had high hopes. I stayed within my points every day, only used 9 of my weekly points and earned 46 activity points. I was rewarded with a loss of 1.8 pounds, which is huge for me because I very often lose a half pound or less per week even on great, on-program weeks. That puts my total weight loss at 94.2 pounds with 5.8 pounds to go until I hit my goal weight.
An odd thing has happened today, I'm hoping to get some feedback from those of you on this same journey about it. Today at work, and again twice tonight when I went to dinner with some alumnus from my high school, people have (with a very sincere, concerned tone in their voice) said "you've lost TOO much weight- you need to stop!" One of my classmates (who easily weighs 10 to 15 pounds less than me) said, "really, you are too skinny and it's not good". I don't get it- by NO means am I anywhere near skinny- for that matter, I'm still 2.8 pounds from the HIGH end of my healthy weight range on both Weight Watchers and the BMI charts. Honestly, I am a hobbit-like 5 foot 4 inches tall and (as of tonight) I weigh 148 pounds so I clearly have a good 15 to 20 pounds before any reasonable person could suggest that I weigh too little. Why do people feel compelled to suggest that I've gone to far when I haven't even reached a high end healthy weight? I just don't get people sometimes....
Tomorrow we are leaving for a weekend away at a retreat for the families of children who have heart defects, all meals will be provided so on-plan eating will be a bit of a challenge but there is lots of fresh fruit and a salad bar...between that and the WW smoothie mix and green tea w/ mint that I'm bringing it shouldn't kill my week. There will be lots of walking around and outdoor activities (and dancing, woo!) so with a little bit of care things should be just fine on the weight loss front.

Focus, focus......FOCUS!

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Tonight was weigh in night at Weight Watchers, and I genuinely was not upset to show a gain of 6/10ths of a pound. Most of this week was spent trying to recover from a bit of a dietary indescretion (ok, a flurry of emotional eating would be more accurate) on Sunday night. I found myself feeling a sort of free floating (as in no "target" to apply it to) anger and anxiety for no real reason, and it seemed at the time that the best way to deal with that was to plunge elbow deep into caramel popcorn. (Hey, it made PERFECT sense at the time!) I was up 2 1/2 pounds that next morning, and spent the rest of the week staying carefully on track with my eating and racking up over 40 activity points to counteract 30 minutes of eating hysteria. So, do you see why I wasn't upset with "only" a 6/10th gain? Now the caramel corn is GONE and I'm striving to regain my focus on my final stretch towards my weight loss goal. On Tuesday, my former Weight Watchers leader posted a quote on Facebook that I've been repeating to myself all week, and I even printed it out and put it on my "inspiration board" in my bedroom. Here it is, it's from Jennifer Hudson's new book:
"Hear this loud & clear. I am completely in charge of the choices I make about what I am doing to lose weight and get healthy. And you know what? We ALL have this power."
When I've been tempted to inhale cookies or junky, not nutritious food the last few days I've just repeated to myself "I am completely in charge of the choices I make about what I am doing to lose weight and get healthy." That has steered me in the right direction, and I will strive to continue to maintain that FOCUS and show a better result on the scale next Thursday.
:)

Anybody still occasionally checking in here? It's *possible* that I haven't blogged in a minute...ok, make that 20 months. Yeah, I'm a bad blogger. I've been reading a lot of blogs lately by Weight Watchers members, and I'm hoping that I can revisit using this blog as a way to keep myself on track with WW. I'm currently at a total loss of 93 pounds, with my (unofficial, as I never have actually sat down with a WW leader to set a goal) goal weight just 7 pounds away. (Last week it was only 5 pounds away, but I had an unexpected 2 pound gain at my weigh in yesterday.) I'll keep reading everyone else's blogs and posting here.
Some new foods that I've discovered in the last few months are spaghetti squash and Oikos chocolate Greek yogurt. (Not together...that would be bad!) I've been cooking a little bit, which is a big change for me as I've always depended on my son or my husband to cook for me. I can make spaghetti squash, chicken breasts, pork chops and (new tonight), tilapia.
I've been really ramping up the activity in an attempt to shed these last half dozen or so pounds. I've been doing classes at the gym, my favorites are Body Attack and Body Combat. I also do Body Pump every Wednesday and Body Vive occasionally. I also invested in some good running shoes and I can run over 5 miles at a time at a pace of 5.5 MPH. My goals are to increase my speed (if I can get it up to 6 MPH that will be a 10 minute mile pace) and to increase my distance so I can move up to 10K races (6.2 miles) along with the 5K's I've been doing. I've been doing the "30 day chip" challenge on Twitter, aiming for 30 minutes per day of exercise every day for 30 days. Today is day # 19, once I get another 5 minutes in. :)
I hope that a handful of you will join me in this effort to get those last few pounds gone and to reach my WW goal weight. Here is a pic of me and my "little boy" (who's nearly 6 feet tall at 15 years old)on Christmas to show my latest "after" picture. Please feel free to comment here or email me to keep me accountable, that's why I'm here!

Weight Watchers before and after (in progress!) pictures

Apparently I'm on the blogging-every-90-days plan, lol. My Weight Watchers leader asked me for a before and after picture, after losing over 55 pounds in just under a year. These won't exactly be "after" pictures since I still have 42 more pounds to go until I hit my final goal at WW, so maybe it's more of a before and "in progress" set of pictures. Here is my before pic, from the Powlen family reunion in July 2009. (Thanks for making a cameo in my before pic, Aunt Sandra!) :)

and an even more distressing one, from that same week in July 2009:

Here is a pic from July 2010, almost a year to the day from the picture immediately above this.

and this one is from the July 2010 Powlen family reunion, the 2009 version of which is my first "before" picture.

Next Thursday will mark my one year anniversary of attending Weight Watchers, I have 42 pounds to go until I reach my final goal on WW but I have a few smaller goals before that: in 12 more pounds lost, I'll weigh what I claimed to weigh on my ID badge when I worked at HRS/DCF in the early 90's (in truth, I weighed more than I do now, but I wasn't putting that in black and white on my badge, lol!), in 30 more pounds lost I'll weight what I did when I got married...each of those will be huge achievements to me, but I'm hoping to hit my final goal (which is a few pounds less than I weighed when I graduated from high school) by this time next year.