Weekly Weak Moments

So, this has been a harder week. The first week of a diet is always so much easier. It's something new, you feel like you're taking control, and you can do it. Then the next week, reality sets in, and you realize you've eaten the same thing for 4 days in a row, because you know it works and you have it in the house... but you're already bored. Oops!

This week has been harder for a few reasons. My husband started classes again, so he's gone three evenings a week. That makes making dinner and eating dinner that much harder. Or planning snacks for the next day. Or relaxing, getting sleep, etc.. I feel more like I need to use food to reward myself. I've run out of some of the easier foods to eat, because we haven't been to the grocery store since last Saturday.

So far I'm keeping within points. I mean, heck, I get basically 15 points a day plus Core foods. But I'm not making great choices, and I've felt hungry and cranky due to having less food, less healthy food, less exercise, and just being overwhelmed.

The house is a mess... everything feels like it's a mess.

I'm currently going through FlyLady's BabySteps (again!) to rebuild my routines. I seem to have to do that often, but I think it happens a lot after stressful times and when my routine needs to change but I can't figure out how. For example, for a long time my evening routine was pretty well set, but with dh taking evening classes, it's pretty much shot. I have to re-arrange things, and I haven't made that work yet, so it's fallen apart, and consequently my mornings are crazier (because I'm still rushing around trying to find everyone's lunch and clothes) and I'm forgetting things for the kids (I swear, it was 50 degrees 3 days ago and the poor boy only had a light jacket and was wearing shorts!) and I'm lucky if I get a shower, so I just feel disgusting. That does not lend itself towards keeping the house clean, which means it harder to make meals, and really, everything just snowballs.

So, I'm trying to rebuild routines. One thing I just added was to give myself 15 minutes in the morning, even if it is once I get to work, to give myself a pep talk and arrange my day. I look over what needs to be done and make a list, plus I just tell myself I'm doing a good job and that I can get everything done. I hope it helps.

Maybe we can get our acts together so we can see friends again. Some recently asked if we wanted to get together (either here or there) and I just panicked. I really miss people, and I love seeing them, but I'm just scared of everything right now. Bleh.

Dance Dance Revolution Exercise Plan

I mentioned how I intend to take advantage of our new PS2 and DDR to lose weight and got a comment (imagine that! I have commenters! Eek!) about it.

I actually got the idea from a few places. Okay, the first is that DDR actually has a game play mode called "workout". But I'd heard of it being used before that. A good friend of mine lost over 100 pounds a couple years back. She used weightwatchers, Curves, and (oddly enough) DDR. Since she's a video game player like myself, it worked out well for her. It provides entertainment while you exercise (nothing is more boring to me than, say, running!) and it helps drive you to keep going, even when you're tired. I'm far more likely to keep playing a game when I'm tired than I am to keep plodding along on a treadmill. I might want to get to a new level, or beat a high score, or whatever.

But the first time it ever crossed my mind was about 5 years ago when I was at a conference for work. The hotel I stayed at was across the street from a very nifty arcade and a friend I was with suggested we try it out. Well, while I was there, I saw a teenager playing his DDR heart out for
about half an hour, and he was absolutely covered in sweat. I remember my mind briefly thinking, "wow... That looks like a good workout!"

Anyway, as I said, my version (and many other versions) of DDR actually has a workout mode. You can input your weight and set a few options in order to configure your workout. You can specify if you want to exercise for a certain amount of time, or a certain amount of calories, and the system will craft an exercise routine just for you! It starts out slow to warm up, builds in intensity, and then slows down at the end to cool. Somehow or another it even estimates the calories you've burned.

One Week Into the New Diet

I'm usually not a person who makes New Year's Resolutions. I do believe in changing myself for the better, but it seems pointless to wait until New Year's to do it. If I want to change myself, it's better to start right when I have the urge. In this case, the urge just happened to come around New Year's day, so I actually have a real live resolution this year.

You see, I was just on a short vacation to visit family. It was a very fun trip. The thing is, I hadn't seen my sister in about 2 years. I last saw her when she came here to visit and had a 6 month old. Naturally, she was holding lots of baby weight from two kids, plus had that extra-curvy nursing body still. However, this visit, I was the one with the 5 month old, the baby weight, and the nursing body. I'm 40 pounds over where I was before I had kids. She just lost 35 pounds. We have such identical body types that it was like looking at a living, breathing "this is what you could be!" poster. I have to say, it hit me like a ton of brick. I couldn't believe how small she looked. I don't think she's ever weighed less than me before. Ever. I think seeing my sister made an impact on my mom too, because we both swore to lose weight for real this time. My husband also joined up, and my mom told my dad he was, too. He has diabetes, and while he lost a good deal of weight around the time he was diagnosed he still has at least 50 pounds he really should lose.

Apparently my sister made this big change by:

1. Not having any more babies. :D
2. Gave up her breakfast Coke.
3. Stopped snacking by playing World of Warcraft all evening.

Now, um, I don't think this particular diet will work for me. I have no idea how the rest of my family intends to lose, but I've signed up for weightwatchers again. I'm doing Core, and I have to say, having 10 extra breastfeeding points a day sure helps stick to Core! That means I can eat all the Core foods, plus 10 bf points per day, plus 5 points a day as part of the Core plan (you get 35 points to spread over the week), plus I can eat any other activity points. Just yesterday I scored 3 activity points playing Dance Dance Revolution.

Now, I know in the beginning of diets you tend to lose a lot of weight without much work, but I was quite pleased to see that not only did I keep within my points (I actually had 15 left over for the week! I'm too good at this, I guess....) but I lost 3.2 pounds. Go me!!

Hopefully DDR will help me out a lot. I find it hard to do exercises -- it really bores me. But if it's part of a game, my competitiveness will keep me going! My son likes to try to dance along too (or just run in circles) and likes to pick out the music I dance to. My husband takes turns too. Hopefully we'll keep it up!

Also, I just used my birthday gift certificate on a set of weights to do some lifting. I'm going to start following one of the routines from stumptuous.com and use the videos from Weightwatchers online to figure out how to do the exercises correctly.

Wish me luck!