Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

Taking a deep breath and feeling energized about having a clean slate to start off 365 days in 2017. Through Weight Watchers Connect I have read about so many who in only 6 months have lost a good chunk of weight and the difference can clearly be seen. I have read about people who in ONE year have lost 100 lbs our more. They did it, I can do it too. One big question, "How can I do it too?"

My stradegy is to immerse myself in my weight loss journey. Let's stop the hand waving and get to the nitty gritty details. I am a member of Weight Watchers and I am logging everything I eat. I may be over my alloted daily/weekly Smart Point Value (SPV), but logging is important. It's important to make it a habbit, for accountability, to learn to eat mindfully (as opposed to mindless eating). I'm also using LoseIt.com to log, but not as much as before I joined Weight Watchers.

Logging your food intake on paper, in an app, with LoseIt.com or with Weight Watcher's app is important. For logging purposes, they are all the same as long as you use them. Use whichever feels comportable is the best one because, ... well, you will be more likely to use it. A year ago I was using LoseIt.com a lot. I really like the app. The reason I'm tapering away from it is the support. Not the technical support, that area is great! I'm refering to the users. LoseIt.com does have groups such as: Geek_Nerd Alliance; Bloggers & Tweeters; Fitblrs; Fitbloggin; Weight Watchers; Weight Watchers Members; Pokemon Go; Fitbiters; and Stay At Home Moms. All these groups are great ideas but for me personally they are not working out very well because, there isn't as much interaction as I would like. In a couple of those groups, I was the only one making posts/entries for months at a time. That being said, I have left a number of those groups. I prefer arenas where I can interact with other users on a somewhat regular basis. When I want to make a sort of journal entry, I have my blog, this blog. When I want to post and get human feedback, I still post in LoseIt, but now I rely on feedback from Weight Watcher's Connect.

Another important component to loosing weight is having a support system. Having someone to talk to, someone that I can relate to. My family supports my weight loss, but they do not help me with it. Meaning, they don't mind if I don't eat the package of Oreo cookies, but they still bring it into the house and tempt me.  It's a new year and we have been tossing out all the sugary snacks. It's day one and I am starting on the right track. There were Oreo cookies in the house and I did not have a single one! Yay! Still need more support and I'm finding it at my weekly Weight Watcher's meetings. I hear others having similar struggles and we end up brainstorming stradegies to tackle them. Don't get me wrong, not all meetings are the same. I attended 3 other meeting times before I found a leader and group that feel right for me. Nothing wrong with other ones, it's a matter of personal taste.

Okay, so I'm logging all my food, not just my meals, all, my, food. That means everything that goes in my mouth, gets logged. I'm interacting with others on a similar journey as I am; want to loose weight, become a good healthy example for my children, short on time and a long to-do list... etc. What else? I listen to Dave Jackson's Logical Weight Loss Podcast. He is not a doctor, he is not a health guru, or anything like that what so ever. He is a man who is on a weight loss journey. I love listening to him because he faces similar situations as I do. Work, travel, family, getting sick, holidays, he shares his successes and failures. It makes me feel like it will be a tough journey but it is doable and it will be worth it.

I used to watch The Biggest Loser because I am a fan of Jillian Michaels. Now she is not on the show and I still watched a couple more seasons. Now the show is not on and Jillian does not have a TV show. My only option is to listen to Jillian's podcast. If anyone out there knows of another TV show or podcast I might enjoy, please share.

Exercising regularly is also important. My problem is finding time for it, making time for it, word it however you like, I do not intentially exercise 3 times a week. It seems if I don't exercise durint the 1st half of the day, I just don't. I end up running around with everything else and by late afternoon/evening, I'm too tired/lazy to do anything. How to change it? My living room is not picture perfect, we have the treadmill in the middle of it. Christmas decorations have been packed up and put away, the treadmill is available once again. I have no excuse for not walking at least 20 minutes a day. I did not get that walk in today, in fact, I only got 2,000 steps in. Very, very sad. Tomorrow I have to make up the steps.

We'll see how money matters turn out in 2017, but I do have a goal of doing a 5k every month to help motivate me. Each time, I want my time to be faster. For the month of January I'm doing a virtual one through US Road Running I won't be running it but I will be doing the entire walk without stopping.

By the way, I made oven backed lemon and herb salmon for dinner with asparagus, white potatoes, and a slice of Sarah Lee strawberry cheesecake.