Updates Updates!

I can't believe how long it has been since my last post - no excuse for it really - just never did it. It has been a busy but yet uneventful few weeks what with Christmas and New Years.

Ok, so lets talk numbers. Over the month of December I did go up a little bit, but I have to say I had one of my most successful holiday seasons ever in terms of controlling myself and watching what I ate. I was able (for the most part) to stay away from all the holiday goodies floating around the house and office and tried to concentrate on making better food choices. Overall, I think it went pretty well! In years past I used the holiday season as an excuse to eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and in absolutely ridiculous amounts. Let me make one thing perfectly clear right now, I was definitely NOT PERFECT. I ate things I didn't need to eat and I had a Christmas dinner plate big enough to feed a small country, but I learned to use a little bit of self control.

New Years has never been a big deal for me. Sometimes I go out with friends to a party but just as often I stay home, and I have to admit I almost prefer staying home. I'm also not a big resolution maker either. I have made a few in the past, and usually they had something to do with weight loss, but they never lasted long. So, this year when New Years rolled around I decided NOT to make a resolution about losing weight specifically, but rather I committed to "tracking". For those of you not familiar with the whole Weight Watchers program, tracking is a very big part of it. Basically it involves writing down everything you eat and drink every day and keeping track of the "points" associated with those things. I know it sounds like a big fat pain in the ass (and it is), BUT it also works! It definitely makes you a lot more aware of what you are eating, watching your portion sizes and makes you think about whether you want to eat that granola bar because you are actually hungry or because you just feel like eating something. I find it helps to give me a bit more self control because I actually stop and think about whether I want to waste points on something when I'm not really hungry.

Anyway, to get to the point, my new years "resolution" was to start tracking again. I did it regularly when I first started WW, but gradually started slacking - thinking I didn't really need to write it down - that keeping track in my head was good enough. It wasn't. I started tracking again on Dec. 29 and haven't missed a day yet. I have to say it definitely paid off. After one week of tracking I lost 2.4lbs! I weigh in again on Monday and while I hope to have lost more weight I am not expecting nearly that big of a loss because even though I have tracked everything, I have gone over my points for the week (i.e. eaten more than I needed to) so we'll see how it goes.

I guess that's it for today, I promise to try and post more frequently from now on!