PeerTrainer

I went to Sister Kelly's this morning and did a One Mile In Home Walk with her and Leslie.

We talked about what we wanted to do to lose weight. She said she was going to try out PeerTrainer. I thought I'd take the time to check it out today, since I have the time today... a day off from work.

I like the way it's set up.
And since I've decided I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time figuring out calories, it's approach should work for me as well.

So STARTING FEBRUARY 1 I am going back on the wagon..... and begin my program to take off some more weight.

Oh by the way, I liked what they had to say here. It kind of goes along with what I've been saying about making changes in increments.

Take a baby step: Commit to one change, for only 7 days.

When people begin to focus on their weight loss efforts and their health, they often want to do a complete and immediate overhaul. They want to change everything. They want to switch from having fried and fast foods and a relatively sedentary lifestyle to only eating salads, fruits and vegetables, with running/strength training every day. Additionally, they decide that very day to commit to drinking 8 glasses of water a day, 8 hours of sleep along with taking a mulitvitamin along with 5 other personal goals, and only then, they feel like they're ready to get started. While those all might be good habits, this kind of thinking usually sets you up for failure.

Take on one challenge and start small. Maybe its something like, this week, I will not eat chocolate. Only commit to one thing. If other healthy habits start to take hold, wonderful but for now, only commit one challenge. This usually prevents being overwhelmed and subsequently, saying, I just can't do this. As you begin to master that challenge, write it down daily. Day 1, no chocolate! , Day 2, no chocolate. On day 5, you start to feel really good about your ability to make a positive habit happen and that gives you confidence to tackle the next step. Once you feel like you've mastered that challenge, then you can move on to the next one.

Don't Believe the Myth That You Can and Will Lose 2 pounds a week.

Losing 2 pounds per week, every week, is not the norm for everyone. I've seen people lose a pound a week and actually become disappointed, even if they haven't lost weight in 2 years. They are set on the expectation that they can lose 2 pounds a week and anything less becomes upsetting. Every body is different and one sushi dinner can up the scale by 3 pounds. Often times you'll lose a couple pounds one week, one pound the next week and sometimes you'll gain a pound the following week. What is important is the trend. You didn't gain the weight in a measured fashion of 2 pounds per week, you're most likely not going to lose it in the same way. Recognize the trend and chart your progress week to week to notice the overall loss. I've seen very successful weight loss efforts with diligent plans have an average loss of 5 pounds a month.

"Lettuce Lose Weight"

You know you have taken more time off from weight loss than you needed to, when you can't even remember the password to your weight loss journal.

I stopped my diet back when I went to campmeeting in September.

Thankfully, I maintained my weight loss ....

Well, I did until the Christmas/New Year's holidays.

I added some back then.

I do not look upon my new year as beginning on January 1-- my new year for implementing resolutions, that is-- because after the holidays, I go straight into working huge amounts of overtime to get ready for inventory.

So I have arbitrarily set my own new beginning as February 1.

That gives me a little bit of time to catch up on some stuff I got way behind on...
like housekeeping
and grandchild "sitting"
and getting back in contact with friends
and... whatever.

And also it gives me time to think about just what NYRs I want to implement.

The "experts" say keep it down to one or two. Get those established as habit before moving on to something greater. If not, you are "doomed to failure". Most of us are just not good enough at making radical changes in our lives to incorporate a half dozen at one time.

I could make a list of a dozen that I'd like to implement immediately.

But I think weight loss and exercise need to be high on my priority list. The exercise gives me energy. And, of course, it could be used as a tool for weight loss also IF I'D DO ENOUGH OF IT, but that ain't likely to happen. Energy is enough. I need energy.

I took a lot of time when I was doing my 1600 Calories a Day blog to look up the calorie count of everything that I ate and faithfully record it. If you read my blog, you know that I said more than once that keeping that blog was like taking a second job. It took me awhile to do that.

I really don't want to put that much time into weight loss at this date. I think that I should be able to make some headway even if I don't count every calorie.

Or, by eating meals that have been precounted.

One thing I learned from my 1600 calorie effort was that I did not have to stick to 1600 calories EVERY DAY. I could have some Wendy days. But, on the other hand, some days I ate less than that as well.

I turned back to Spark to see what they might have to offer. I liked Sparks motivational articles. But I abandoned their program when I found Calorie-Count because C-C fit my needs so much better.

Spark-- or at least their advertisers-- inspired my title. "Lettuce Lose Weight One Meal at a Time" was the slogan used by Fit N Fresh, advertisers on Spark.

I'm going to throw in here a part of a eulogy I read by a Spark member. It comes off her blog but I liked it. It has applicability in many directions--even in the area of encouraging those who want to lose weight. This is her eulogy; this is what I took from it:

I told her [her, being her grandmother] that I was seeing suffering in everyone, that everyone was in pain, and I couldn’t help everyone. I just couldn’t find beauty in anything. I was feeling very overwhelmed.

She looked at me and said, “Honey, God knows there is suffering and pain in the world. However, He created us to see the beauty and joy in His creation. God is big enough to take all the suffering on himself. Just give it over to him every time.”

Then, she went on to say, “I just read a story in my Guidepost. A man was walking the beach after a huge storm had swept hundreds of starfish onto the shore. He saw another man up ahead pick up a starfish and throw it into the ocean. He watched as the man did that several times.

Curiosity got the best of him and we went to talk to the man.
‘What are you doing?’ the man asked the one throwing the starfish back into the ocean.

‘I’m helping them get back into the ocean.’

‘How can you possibly make a difference when there are hundreds on the beach?’

The man picked up a starfish and threw it into the ocean and said, ‘I just made a difference in that one’s life.’

Nana went on to say, “Kristi, it’s God’s job to save the world. You just have to make a difference in someone’s life.”