Today I went in for my weigh-in. I unfortunately gained 0.2 lbs. It took a month for me to work up the courage to go back in and I paid for it. I have been struggling and have not been very motivated to keep up with the plan in the past month or so.
I can attribute this to a few different things. The most apparent is the lack of structure in my life. When I first started weight watchers, I was working in an office environment with set lunch times and considerably less stress in many ways.
Another is the lack of family support. My mom and I started weight watchers together in July and she has has a lot of trouble staying on plan, as well. My sister and her boyfriend have also moved in and they have little concern for their weight and tend to eat a lot of junk food, so I have had more opportunity to eat things I should not be.
Another problem I have been having is lack of motivation and creativity to cook dinner. There are a lot of different recipes I know, but none is them sound very good lately. This also causes me to eat out a lot more than I should. With all of these factors, I have been going over my points rather often. The weekly extra 49 are there for extra eating, not to be used on a routine basis as I have been.
There are a number of things I need to start doing to help keep myself motivated to push onward.
1. Roll with the lack of structure. Pack food for when I am out of the house. This will help me out a lot when I am at school or work. I get tired of sandwiches so getting more creative with lunch is going to be essential. One of the things I have purchased in the past and really enjoyed are the tuna or chicken salad kits that come with the necessary ingredients to mix up your own salad (mayo and relish) and crackers. I get the Sunkist brand for tuna and Harvest Creek for chicken. They are really good and only 6 points plus for the whole kit. Not too shabby.
2. Better snacking. I have not been fabulous about eating good snacks and this shows up in my healthy checks. I I don't get nearly enough fruits or vegetables. Instead of eating my sister's Oreos, I am going to try to go for fruits and vegetables. I love fruit and many vegetables so there's no reason to not enjoy them as a snack for no points as opposed to points-heavy snacks that don't fulfill any real nutritious need.
3. Ask for my family's support. My sister and I take turns with cooking and she tends to cook a lot more heavy, fatty foods. I know that I have been coming off as a snob when I ask her to avoid cooking with a lot of fat or butter. I need to have a sit down with the whole family and explain that I want to have dinner and eat with them, too. It doesn't have to be perfect, but a little give and take is necessary in this scenario. Also, I probably need to take more time to cook myself. At least when I cook I know what's going on and how to count everything up.
4. Encourage my mom. Having her do well on the plan will help me. She has been encouraging me to go back to the meetings and now I need to encourage her, too. She has wanted to go back and I news to encourage her. She was going to go with me this week but she took my little brother out of town to go to an indoor water park. We will see how she does.
5. Get good ideas for cooking! I how subscribed to a number of great recipe twitter feeds over the past few days. I'll be sure to post about anything interesting I try so that I can keep track of different successes and failures accordingly.
With all of these tools, I think I will be well armed in the struggle to get back on track and work hard to do better. I was very successful in weight watchers before and can be again if I set my mind to it. Life changes, circumstances change. It's necessary to roll with those changes and not use them as an excuse to not do well. I'll be posting about this topic much more often, now. I know I will have a lot of success to share.
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