Stinking Thinking

I'll be honest. I wasn't all that great of a listener yesterday in my last class of my first month of Achieve. See, I GAINED WEIGHT at my weigh-in. It was less than a pound, but it was enough to really get me down. Most of the class I was wallowing in self-pity. Every week, we go through a Power Point presentation. During the last half of the class, we came to a slide about attitude, and there was a bullet point that said "No 'Stinking Thinking'!" Maybe that's not proper grammar, or whatever, but...you get the point. For whatever reason, that phrase struck me. You know how sometimes when you're in church, listening to the radio, or sitting in a class, you hear a phrase and you just KNOW you were meant to hear it. Ok, I got it. I understood...I needed to change my attitude. Good thing it hit me before I even left the class, or else I may have had a terrible week!

Let's look at the bright side(s), because that's what I'm usually good at doing!
1) I've lost about 4.5 lbs in the last 3 weeks, and that's even my one-hour-after-dinner evening weight.
2) I've gained energy. As (I think) I've said before, this is probably one of the most noticeable things for me!
3) I'm starting to finally notice my weight loss...at least a little bit. Wanna know the weirdest place I've noticed weight loss? My FINGERS...?!?!?!?!
4) I feel better. Plain and simple.

So I had a little setback. No big deal. Time to pick myself up and get right back on the healthy train, right? :)

First, let's talk about last week.

My goals were to work out at least twice for 30 minutes each and also to have 6 healthy days. I did work out twice. One workout was only 25 minutes, but we'll go ahead and count it. That particular day, my workout was running/walking, and half of it was UPHILL! Whew. I did meet my goal of 6 healthy days, but I totally took advantage of my junk day on Saturday. Mayyyyybe I indulged a little too much. Whoops! I think my gain came from that as well as having a lazy post-junk day. On Sunday, I just laid around and watched Netflix. I even ordered in (healthy!) food, because I didn't feel like getting up to cook. It was amazing, don't get me wrong, but I should've used my day off more wisely and gone for a walk or done at least something active. I also didn't drink quite as much water on Saturday and Sunday as I usually do. Now, keep in mind, my "usual" water consumption is now up to 20+ cups a day, but I probably drank less than 16 on both of those days.

This was my cheat meal on Saturday. Can you blame me for over-indulging?!

What are my plans for this week?

Once again, I'm going to challenge myself to have 6 healthy days. I'm also going to try to minimize my junk day even more than usual. My second challenge to myself will be to workout THREE days this week for around 30 minutes each. I'm planning on trying to go for Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday this week. I've heard that a tablespoon or two of apple cider vinegar a day can also be helpful for weight loss, so I may try that. Hopefully in another week I'll have good news for you!

Like I said in the beginning, yesterday was my LAST class of my FIRST month of Achieve. I've decided to be come a "Lifestyler" and continue attending classes. This way, I'll continue to learn, grow, and have a group to keep me accountable every week. A real-life group, that is! Writing this blog is definitely another good accountability measure for me!

The moral of the story is that we all have failures and set-backs. The important thing is that you get back up and try again.

Have a great week, everyone!

***P.S. I've now learned that we will be receiving new journals in my lifestyle class, but I took a few minutes last night to create this document. It mimics the journal that I've been using to hand-write my meals and snacks. I also created a non-Achieve version. Feel free to print these for yourself!***
Achieve Food Journal
Non-Achieve Food Journal