Autumn Blues

Oh how I love and hate fall time. I love the look of the leaves as everything changes to fall. I love the crisp fall air and the holidays. However, every fall as far back as I can remember I tend to get depressed. I am not feeling as down as usual this year, but there is just a blah feeling. It is so easy to just want to turn the heat up and cuddle up under a blanket for the next few months.

I am happy to report though that I am fighting the heavy sadness. I have been eating well and running. Last week was mostly hit or miss, but this week I have counted calories every day and ran every day! I did weigh in today. I didn't take a picture because I didn't think I was up for the morning when I weighed myself and before I realized it was officially morning I was slamming water and coffee and didn't want a heavier weigh in. I did see 166.1 lbs. I was happy with that. I lost a little focus around Thanksgiving so I am happy to be down about a half pound...even though it has taken me almost 2 weeks to do that.

I haven't been blogging much these days due to my mood. I think I will just stick to blogging once a week in the winter for my weigh ins and probably will blog more in the summer when there is so much more going on. Although I haven't been blogging, I have been reading a lot of blogs. One in particular has really been making me think.

I love finding a new blog that has been well established and has a lot of entries. It is so fun to go to the beginning and read along their journey, root for them, and see their success. Sometimes it makes it hard to follow "live" blogs because you actually have to wait weeks/months to see their results and be excited. My first favorite "read from the start" blog was http://www.runsforcookies.com/.
Actually, Katie's blog was the first blog that I actually thought was interesting. I read it from the start to current and was actually bummed to get to the current day and it was 'over.' Now I get to look forward to an update every day and it helps to keep me on track and keep me reminded that no one is alone on this weight loss journey.

I recently was on the hunt for another 'must read' blog. It helps me so much to find a new blog that is well documented and read a few entries here and there...especially when I am feeling snacky. A few weeks ago I found http://www.sherylyvette.com/. I will admit that I wasn't instantly hooked, but I loved the look of her blog and started reading. She is very detailed and has a lot of information. She follows weight watchers and shares a lot of information that she hears there. (I am only caught up to her in 2010, but I get a feeling she becomes a leader.) I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to the weight watchers information because I have attended weight watchers before and a lot of their information is repetitive. I was reading it to watch her transformation. I have been realizing these past few days that her weight watcher information/healthy thinking is starting to get to me...in a good way. She talks a lot about eating for fuel and really thinking about why you are eating and what you are eating. I do try to eat healthy, but I still slip a lot. This past week though I am really trying to eat when I am hungry and let it just be a meal and not my form of enjoyment. I am still eating healthy foods that I enjoy, but I am eating to fuel my body and then find something fun to enjoy. It seems to be helping me and making me really focus on why I eat. I am excited to have her blog to follow now in addition to my other ones.

Daily Double

Yikes, two posts in one day! I am actually feeling really positive about my health right now AND had some free time so I thought I would use this time to my advantage. I normally blog during little lady's nap and usually feel rushed because either I have other chores I still have to get done before she wakes up or else I know that at any moment she could wake up. She is currently in bed for the night and hubby has been working on some home renovation so I thought I would share some thoughts.

I have spent the last few days activity trying to get my mindset back into healthy living. One of the things that really helps me is to read other weight loss blogs. I get so excited when I find a new one that seems interesting to me and (nerd alert) I will go to the beginning of the blog and read through each entry. It's like instant gratification! I can watch/read someone's huge weight loss progress within a few days. It can be so motivating and comforting! It is also the main reason that I started this blog, so that maybe one day someone will read this and find some type of inspiration.

This week I have found a few new to me blogs and read through some of them. I wish I could remember which blog I read this in (if you know, please let me know and I will give credit/thank the author) but the woman was talking about how or why this time was different than other weight loss attempts. She felt that her weight loss was different this time around because there was no time limit attached to it. I kept thinking about that all week. That made so much sense to me! I really, truly feel that this is the time I make it to my goal. I think it is different because last time(the only time) I successfully lost a large amount of weight was for my wedding. I remember constantly looking at my weigh-ins and thinking either, "yay, I am on track to be at goal by my wedding" or "well, if I keep this up I won't make it to goal for the wedding." While I was actually losing things were good, but I would go completely off track if I had an off week. It was like my mind figured that if I couldn't be at my goal for the wedding, then why stay on track. I mean who wants to weigh 150 at their wedding when they could weigh 145? Obviously not worth my time...so instead I let myself hang on at 160, lame. Once the day passed, I couldn't stay in the weight loss mindset and went back to old habits.

This time I have no deadline. I don't even focus on when I could be at goal. Occasionally I do dream of when it could happen, but I don't really focus on how long. Which is probably a really good thing since I am taking it so slow this time. I averaged 10 pounds/month on Weight Watchers with my first weight loss. This time around I have only lost about 30 pounds in just short of 8 months. But...I lost 30 pounds!!! If I lose 30 more pounds over the next year, I will be at goal.