2 more weeks!!!

Sort of...I think I mentioned that I count the week "over" for this journey when it starts. :-)

Anyway I am halfway through Week 14 at this point.  Still ZERO cheats!  I am really proud of that.  However, I do agree that it is pointless to beat yourself up if you do cheat.  On the other hand I don't think it is OK to give yourself permission to cheat just because nothing bad happened this time.  First of all, as a nurse who has worked with patients at risk for referring syndrome I have seen electrolytes go nuts when you re-feed too fast.  It's not a good thing!  Also, the fact that nothing showed up on the scale this week doesn't mean that what you ate today won't show up next week!  I let myself get away with binging for too many (6) years because I would have a "bad day" and then I wouldn't have a gain on the scale so I allowed it to continue.  And then in 2 weeks I would be up another 2-3lbs and all those 2-3lbs added up to 100!  So, for me personally I need to remember that cheating is only cheating myself and that there is a reason I gained all this weight in the first place.  I will use that going forward into maintenance as well.  I was always a healthy weight and when I think back during those healthy years I would MAYBE once a month eat a little extra but in general I didn't overindulge.  I think one thing that helped me stay there is that I lived with a mother who was overweight and had several extended family members that were obese.  I never thought I would join them in those ranks.  Then, I became a travel nurse, worked crazy rotating shifts and was mostly surrounded by people of healthy weights.  Sounds silly, but I truly think that was part of it-I just stopped paying attention!  Of course, our facilitator has brought that up a few times-that people who are a healthy weight actually do think about what they are putting in their moths even though you don't hear them do it. :-)  Lessons learned, right??

So this week I weighed in at 200.8lbs!  So, that means this Thursday I will be under 200 for the first time since January 2008.  Thank goodness.  The last time I remember weighing myself besides right before I went to Boston.  I remember because I went to Seattle that Sept and weighed in at 198 and I remember telling someone that I was dangerously close to the next century of weight and that I was terrified of getting there.  I met the same people in Vegas that January and I was still the same weight.     So anyway, I am very excited to hit 197 and feel like I am losing the 35 or so pounds that I gained on night shift in San Diego. :-) Sometimes I think back to my time in San Diego and it makes me sad that I left when I did, but I am so glad I went home and spent the next year with my best friend as she was dealing with her cancer and later passed away.  It is frustrating though that when I left SD I was finally getting active again!  Ah well.  I'm finally get back there again!!

Today I did my C25K run.  It was week 8 day 1 and was a 27min run.  I was finally under a 15min pace for the run portion and I know it would have been slightly faster without the pups, but I'm not ready to leave them behind.  ;-) They enjoy it too much.  Plus Lucy still has weight to lose.  Ha!  And Lola just needs the exercise.  She is still crazy after our 40min (total with the warm up and cool down.)  I think I will be back in the 12min/mile range soon enough.  And that is probably where I will hang out forever. :-) If anyone is thinking of doing it, I just want to say that you can run at any weight!  Of course you should probably be walking first, but when I started this my run was a shuffle, literally.  It was not what anyone would ever consider a run, and actually it was probably slower than my walk.  BUT it uses different muscles and it def got my heart rate up higher.  If you do it right you aren't necessarily at risk for more injuries (all about form and not landing on a straight leg.)  I actually recommend wearing a chest strap HR monitor to force yourself to only go at a pace that isn't too much and to follow an interval program.  It has worked great for me this time.  And worked wonderfully for me in the 2001 when I first started running!

Ok, that's it!  Next 2 weeks of group are all about food and transition so they should be really interesting!