The more things change...

The more they stay the same....and that's where I am now, staying the same.  I am momentarily feeling frustrated and discouraged, but the saner part of me will soon take over and commence with pep talks, etc.  But for now, I'm annoyed - no change on the scale from last week.  Argh.  Argh. Groan. Whine.  I know the biggest problem is coming back from vacation, no matter how small, and getting back into a routine.  I didn't track everything and I haven't walked all week.  I can come up with a 1,000 excuses but excuses won't get the job done - and you know what?  I know better.  Much better.  I've been here before.  I will say that one issue for me is counting calories - after years of WW's and thinking in points, it's been hard for me to adjust to calories.  The program that I use gives me 1,376 calories a day for a weight loss target of 1.5 lbs per week.  If I exercise, I can eat the calories burned if I want (sometimes I do, sometimes I don't).  Those calories go fast.   For example, one day last week I had my coffee (with real milk), a package of hostess 100 cal crumb cakes at about 9, cheerios with 1% milk at around 11:30, a tablespoon of pb on light wheat bread around 2 pm, and a package of hostess 100 calorie cup cakes at around 4:30 - eating every few hours keeps me from feeling hungry and it doesn't seem like it was alot - but, that was was almost half my calories for the day, leaving me with about 650 for dinner and night snacks (because I am a night snacker and need to leave some calories for that).   So, I need to think of my calories like a bank and think of ways to make smaller withdrawals (use less calories).  Of course, I do know that fruit and veggies would be less calories and more filling, but I'm still a work in progress there - I can't force myself to eat what I don't like, that would only make this whole process so much harder.  I can keep trying, though, and I will.

So much of weight loss is mental and can be such a head game.  But, I will say that I went out with some co-workers and one, who is a few years older than me, has been doing WW's and working out at the gym religiously - she looks AMAZING.  Everyone was complimenting her on how awesome she looked.  And you know what?  I am willing to admit that I am vain enough to want to be her - I want those commpliments and I want to feel proud of what I've accomplished.  And that is just one more thing that will keep me on this path - yes, good health is the real payoff, but a "wow, you look amazing" never hurts!!  :)