"This is the moment, tonight is the night, we'll fight till it's over!"

Thanks to the internet I have had more reasons to listen to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, and after listening to this macklemore's tiny desk concert everyday for a week I think I should probably buy the album. That's where this quote comes from.  Pretty good idea! The songs I've listened to have really good hooks, good words and trumpet, how could it go wrong. (I used to play the trumpet in band and I have a real fondness for music that features trumpets.)

This week's meeting was sad as I learned that my new favorite leader is moving away and that today was his last meeting. (Sigh...now I need a new crush.) During the meeting we talked about managing treats and a few people talked about seeing things only once a year during the holidays. One woman equated it to depriving yourself throughout the year and then binging because you "never" get to eat it the rest of the year.  Another woman said something I really liked to combat that idea. Remember, if you really want to eat it you can just have a little and if you still want more tomorrow or the next day then you can eat it. It's not only available today.  There is no cookie apocalypse. This idea great for things like cheese log, coffee bread and Christmas cookies.

My leader also posed an important question. How much of the eating that we do during the holidays is because we are actually hungry? not very much.  I want to try to remedy that this year. (If thanksgiving was an indication I think I will do pretty well. I just need to eat 3/4 veggies and fruits and then everything else. Oh and be cautious about alcohol.) Then, we talked a lot about why we are at weight watchers and why we joined.  One of our members used to be addicted to donuts and then he joined and now he chooses not eat them.  Our leader suggested, What do you want more than the donut? or what trumps the donut? He also suggested that we do a bit of thinking about what we want to feel like in a few weeks around the beginning of 2013.

I wanted to do a little bit of thinking about that here. I want to do the best that I can with the given circumstances, don't know how bored we will all be stuck inside if it is snowing the whole time we are in the mountains.  (There is a pool table there so at the very least I can get really good a pool and maybe if I bring cards we can play poker too.) I want to feel good about my choices and also that I did not deprive myself or start to get resentful of the fact that everyone else could drink all the time and I can't.   (I have to be very specific about when and how I drink.)  I just need to go for walks and do as much as I can activity wise. I think that it is realistic for me to loose next week and maintain the week of x-mas, I'd love to loose the week of new year's but I don't know yet if that is realistic. I guess I should just take it one week at a time. :)

I had good success last week at work thanks to packing my lunch the night before and pre-tracking.  I had to think about it at home for 30min or so but the next day it was out of my head and I felt a lot less stress about food. Nope I can't eat that, I already tracked.  I also started talking to the candy bowl in my head.  "Nope, I don't want you."  I'm finally starting to use the active link to get to my 100% every day instead of using it as a metric to see how I did that day. Yesterday I put it in the computer to see how far off from 100% I was, (I was at 78% or something) so I put on some music and had a living room dance party. I got to 108% by the end of the day. I like that I can wear it and I don't really have to track exercise specific unless I want to, I can just plug it in and see how I did. (Yet another thing I don't have to think about.)

This week a small but steady loss -.06 (half a pound).  I still feel really good as I ate out a few meals, had a few drinks and went to a 6 year old's birthday party yesterday.  -.06 is great!  -37.8 total, -40 here I come! 

I figured it had been a while since I wore my hair down in a picture for the blog. It is getting longer and longer but it won't show itself. (Instead it curls up more and more.)

"Cut it out and then Restart."

When I was in college I used to make mix Cd's (or mix tapes as my sister calls them) for different occasions or when I was bored.  The way I put the songs together takes a patented recipe of different styles, tempos, instrumentals and a good title. I spend a long time looking through my library, thinking about songs I know I want to include and looking for other songs that have titles that might relate to the theme of the title. Then I put them in an order and listen to the tops and tails of each song next to each other and move them accordingly. Then I listen to the whole things a few times before I publish them. It takes kind of a long time. I tend to get compliments on them so let me know if you want me to burn you a few old ones. (I watched High Fidelity a lot in college and I was definitely inspired by the way that the main character talks about how to make a perfect mix tape.) As Xmas is coming close I decided to make a few mixes to give away as stocking stuffers, so I have been working on them. (Spoiler Alert Cindy.)

I was listening to one when I started to write this blog and I started listening to the lyrics of the Florence and the Machine song, "Shake it out". I think the whole lyric is "tonight I am going to cut it out and Restart." I really like it and it relates to this two week period.  Last week,  after an almost 2lb gain I faced a week of fun employment, which means a week at home.  My room needed a lot of attention and I was beating myself up about not cleaning it.  So I cleaned the rest of my house and made and put up Christmas Decorations.  Then at the last possible day, I started to clean my room.  I am excited to say that though I am not finished I am very very pleased with my progress.  (I am going to do a few 20/10's and 45/15's this week to finish it and then there will be many many photos. 20/10's are a concept via http://unfuckyourhabitat.tumblr.com/ IT IS VERY HELPFUL and also funny.)

It is amazing how much better I feel this week than last having conquered most of the big ugly. I knew I would feel better but it just gets so overwhelming.  I babysat for my niece and nephew and helped my mom make a project on the sewing machine.  The quilt my sister and I made got to my cousin and he (and my aunt) really liked it. What else happened, oh yeah MORE ARTS AND CRAFTS!  I maybe am really excited about free tutorials for things.  I found some cool things that I really really really want to make and it is getting me motivated to have a good clean workspace.  Today after WW, I went to the local craft store to get a Smash notebook.  Not only did I manage to get through the store with just buying the smash notebook and nothing else, when I got the register the sales clerk gave me a coupon that made the smash book 50% off!!! 

Now to the new ww.  OMG I love it.  It is perfect for those of us who know the plan works but need more help with the program management.  (I am so excited that the meeting I have been to have been more about things that don't relate to food than food all the time.)  It is kind of strange but I feel like I have re-joined ww, without ever stopping. They moved the WW from down the street from my house to inside a little mall in a big mall in Emeryville and it has a tv and green chairs. The plan changed and I have been going to a different meeting the past few weeks because I keep not being able to go on Sunday mornings.  I really like the vibe and the people that are at this new meeting.  I really like the leader (I maybe have a little crush on him...) I do feel a bit of guilt after having gone to the same leader for over a year (I really really like her still), but I am really enjoying this new experience, it's shaking the program up a bit for me.  I think I can probably manage these new meetings for a while too...

This week I lost 4.6 lbs!!! -37.2 total And this time I know how I did it.  I made good choices at the grocery store and made good interesting food to eat and had good snacks at the ready and I tracked.  Last week we talked about routines and I started to think about why I was going into the kitchen to eat.  It was empowering. This week I am working days, and I did a lot of prep so I have meals ready to go to work and ideas for things to make when I get home. We'll see how well all my prep work works.

Here's me this week!

I am very excited.

Side View

If I could figure out how to make a GIF I would have for this and two more photos...:)

It''s new program time!!!!

Every December (or most Decembers) WW rolls out the new plan for the next year.  I think they are pretty smart to test it out and/or fix the bugs the month before New Years when people traditionally feel the need to join WW.  Plus we the members get to learn it before everyone else too!

I went to a different meeting this week and it was a pleasant surprise.  The leader was good and I am excited about the new program. The whole approach seems much more positive and almost catered to me. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

This week I went to a friends birthday party (did pretty well except that the cake was lemony and amazing and I had two too many pieces but I did allow myself to drink a bit.)  Which all would have been fine except for the fact that the next night was an awesome holiday party and I got drunk for the first time in a long time. I don't think I had realized how long it has been since I had been really drunk. I got to experience being drunk as a novelty and a thing that I remembered each part of.  It's been quite a while since I have experience that. Let's just say I am currently a cheap drunk. 

I managed to gain a bit of weight this week. I had a feeling I was going to so I didn't get as sad as I might have. Oh well!  I am excited about succeeding this week both work wise and WW wise and I am hopeful that I can cross a lot of things off my to do list.