Accountability.

Weekly Weigh-in: +2.1 lbs (total -2.3)
 
All of the "cheating" has caught up with me. A 2lb increase. It's not the end of the world, but it's significant. I can't get to this first 5lb down goal! SO freaking frustrating.

But, I think I know what happened. Only one gym trip in the last 8 days (thanks to that asshat who hit me last week- that killed my weekend. I went back Monday, but that was it for the week), yet I continued to eat like I *had* been working out. For example: yesterday I started out all healthy like with my steel cut oats and fruit. I had healthy snacks, even a healthy lunch. But then... I go to QD. I grab a coffee and, hey!, it's 19 cent cookie day! I can have one because I've been so good and I have the points (NOBODY has the extra calories for one of their cookies. Trust me.). And... twizzlers are low point too! Let's grab those! Dinner at 8pm- sure. But now I'm famished, so let's order (spreadable) cheese and crackers and "share" them (read: I ate 2/3 of the plate myself), and a turkey reuben. NOT the best choice. But hey, I had been good all day! AND, it's the start of a new WW week, so I have all of my weekly points! WIN!

Not so fast...

Back to the exercise for a second. I ran across an article a while back from Time Magazine that said exercising won't help you lose weight- "In general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless," says Eric Ravussin, chair in diabetes and metabolism at Louisiana State University and a prominent exercise researcher...The basic problem is that while it's true that exercise burns calories and that you must burn calories to lose weight, exercise has another effect: it can stimulate hunger. That causes us to eat more, which in turn can negate the weight-loss benefits we just accrued. Exercise, in other words, isn't necessarily helping us lose weight. It may even be making it harder."So, it's not that exercise doesn't make you fit or thin- but it's the chemical telling you to get food in your belly- NOW- that is leading to sabotage.

I'm curious if this is true. On Weight Watchers, we get "activity points" when we work out- we trade in our exercise for food points IF we want to use them. Of course, I usually do- after a workout, I'm famished, and I want to eat something immediately. That doesn't bode well for my waistline, as "fast food" typically becomes whatever I can find laying around my house that takes less than 5 minutes to prepare. And, at the end of the week/budget period, I can assure you that it isn't fruit that is laying around.

Mission: earn activity points and not use them. I can use my weekly flex points (if I have any left after last night's disaster of a day!), but not the exercise ones. This will keep me within my weekly calorie/food goal, but it will also train me that food is not a reward for working out. Step one: record everything  I ate yesterday- I seemed to have stopped after writing down my healthy lunch... Step two: determine how many weekly points I have left, if any. Step three: get my ass to the gym. Step four: eat something *healthy* after working out - this is why I like to go before lunch, especially on work days.I have a healthy lunch packed; there's no famished "gimmie gimme gimme!" going on, because I'm limited as to what I can eat. Step five: repeat all week.

I'm not letting yesterday's - or last week's - mistakes hold me down. Grocery shopping day has arrived (yippie!), the list has been made, the gym bag is packed and ready to go and I've made plans for the week ahead- for example, while I'm making a cheesecake for dessert for the Super Bowl, I'm also bringing fresh fruit for me to eat instead.AND, if I want to use half of my daily points on cheesecake... then...yeah. I may have to rethink the dessert..

I'm trying. But obviously not trying hard enough.

Edit: I went through and calculated my disaster day. I get 38 points/day on WW. You get 49 flex points for the week to use how you choose. Yesterday, I used 79 points total. 79. That leaves me with 8 flex points for the week. @%$#@.

Edit 2: After going to a WW meeting and talking to other WW members, I've realized that it is impractical to go into Super Bowl mode with only 8 weekly points. I'm setting myself up for failure. Therefore, any activity points I earn on Saturday and Sunday *only* can be used for Super Bowl Sunday. The rest of the week, points will accumulate and not be used that day.