Back From Bama

Back from our visit with the hubby's family.  We had a few great days with James' parents, and his aunt & uncle, at a campground in Alabama.  And the visit did not undo my weight loss efforts.  It could have, easily.  During the days, the guys were off all day long, doing guy stuff.  I had my days to myself, in our comfortable little cabin near the lake.  But, one thing that helped was my access- or lack of- to food.  I had only what we brought in our cooler, and I brought only what I needed for my meals and a few limited snacks.  No soda, no chips, no munchies.  Snacks were fresh fruit and low fat cheese.  Lots of water.

It was hot while we were there, but every day I got out and walked twice.  Plus, to get to my in-laws' RV, we had to walk back and forth.  Before I even got there, my father-in-law drove the entire loop of the campground, to let me know it was 1.9 miles around, so I could keep track of how much I'd walked.  I used to keep track of my walking by the mileage, but now I do it by the length of time and intensity level, since that is how Weight Watchers figures my activity points.  My morning walks were about 30 minutes, and my afternoon walks, almost 20 minutes.  Other than that, I had a relaxing few days cutting coupons, reading cooking magazines, and watching some interesting shows on a channel called Create (like PBS).  The TV only got about 5 channels, so Create was a great find.  I even downloaded a fantastic recipe for mashed cauliflower from one of the shows- we made it last night and it was unbelievably good!  We ate the entire head of cauliflower!

Dinners were great, and my mother-in-law who is a WW's lifetime member, had alternatives where I could eat with everyone and not fret over my points.  She had vegetarian chili, turkey dogs, and even veggie burgers.  I was able to stay within my points every day easily.  The trip home was another story, and as I always do at restaurants, I made horrible choices.  You would think that a grilled chicken sandwich would be okay, but when it's gigantic on a ciabatta roll with cheese and bacon and mayo- well, you get the picture.  My losses at my last two weigh-ins came after trips out of town and eating in restaurants.  And I can report that I did have losses those two weeks, even if they were scant.  I would rather have a tiny fraction of a loss, than a gain.  So my total loss since going back to WW, is now 3 pounds.

I know I can do better than that, and I know I have to start exercising more.  I still struggle with that part of it.  So I bought the new ActiveLink monitor at the meeting yesterday, and started wearing it today.  It will track all my movements for the next week, and come up with my "average" activity level.  After that, it will continue to track my activity and let me know if I am below average, so that I can get motivated to move more.  It will gradually increase my average for a 12-week challenge, so I will have to move more every day to keep up with the minimum. Almost everyone in class has the monitor, and they swear by it. The lady who joined the same day I did, has lost 8 pounds already, and she praises the monitor as her main reason for it.  I guess it can't hurt, and I might as well use all the tools available if I am going to give WW 100% of my dedication this time around.

I have some more challenges coming up this week and the next, but I know that as long as I offset my diet by increasing my exercise, I should be fine.

SANDY