#1257 focusing on a big goal

Yesterday's WW meeting was good. It was about thinking why we came to Weight Watchers and focusing on our goals.

The first time I started at WW was in 2008. T was 10 and when he gave me a hug, his arms didn't reach all the way around me. There were some other reasons for joining, but the fact that my son couldn't hug me around my waist is one reason that I always come back to for a big reason for joining. At that time, I set a big goal for myself: I wanted to lose 100 pounds. I did not reach that goal, but I learned a lot and I worked hard and I felt like I was in a good place. I think the most I'd lost was between 85 and 90 lbs. That's a lot. I was so proud of myself!

I kept it mostly off for awhile, but I got lazy and complacent. I was having a lot of pain in my right knee and I wasn't exercising like I had been. I was falling back into my old eating habits, too. I wasn't paying attention to what I was eating; I was just eating whatever I wanted and in quantities that weren't responsible. The sad thing is that all during that time, I was still a WW member, but I was paying them as I was gaining weight. So I quit WW, then I started putting the weight back on in a serious hurry.

In January of this year, I decided to swallow my pride and get back on the program before I put all the weight back on. At least I wasn't where I had been in 2008, but it was close and it was going to happen. In the nearly nine months I've been back on the program, I've lost just over 12 lbs. It's not great, but it's waaaaaaay better than gaining 12 lbs!

So that's why I (re)joined, and now I need to focus on my goals. I have a weight in mind that I would someday like to be. I don't think it's necessary to share that number here, but I think it's attainable although far away. That's the long-term goal. The short-term goal is to focus on the five lb stars. At the meetings, you get a little sticker for every five pounds you lose. I love to get those stickers. I've only got two of them this year. I would like to get five more of them before the end of the year.

My goal is to lose about 25 lbs by the end of the year. That's a lofty goal. There are only 15 more Saturdays before the end of the year, so I'd need to drop just over a pound and half every week to achieve my goal. It's do-able, but difficult, especially with the holidays in there.

In order to reach my goal, I need to really focus on the WW basics: writing down everything I eat and staying within my Points Plus allotments, eating fruits and vegetables, drinking lots of water and exercising. I've been pretty good at two of those four things, tracking and drinking. I've got to get back in the groove with those other two things!

WW wants you to eat five servings of fruits or veggies every day. That's hard for me! Potatoes don't count and I don't really like vegetables all that much, but I've got to figure out a way to make it happen. I've done it before; I'm pretty sure I'll be able to do it again.

When I was in WW the first time, I really got into exercising. I liked it. It was fun and I loved watching my body change as I lost fast and gained muscle. Now I have a new knee and there are some limitations but I should be able to do most of the stuff that I enjoyed doing before, like spinning class. I also really liked yoga, but I do not like to be on all fours putting pressure on that new knee. It feels awful, so I'll probably try yoga again, but do some modifications for some of the poses.

Last year around this time, I joined a different gym because I was burned out on the classes and instructors at my regular gym. It was mistake. The new gym was yucky. It was dirty and smelly and the spinning room was a cave in which I got claustrophobic and nauseous. I haven't been there for months. MT was really cool when I explained my issues with the place. He said that we all make mistakes and that I should just go back to my regular gym and get back on the exercise habit, so that's what I'm going to do! I'm going to set up appointments with myself to get back to the gym and take some classes but also exercise on my own in the cardio and weight rooms. I figure I need to go to about five classes a month and hit the cardio/weight room about five times a month to cover the costs. Ten visits a month seems do-able, doesn't it?

All right. It's time to get serious about this. I'm tired of being chunky. I think I'll feel a whole lot better about everything in my life if I have this big goal to focus on and all the little mini-goals that go with it.

Okay! I'm going to go plan my attack on exercising and fruits and veggies this week! Wish me luck :)