Back On Track - I Mean It This Time!

I've started this blog a million times this summer, but I could never really get behind it mentally.  I've been a slacker.  I've gained back 3 and a half pounds over the summer.  I just didn't care.  I say I was busy and had a lot of things come up, but the truth is, I was just lazy.  I could have worked out, but I didn't.  I could have tracked my food, but I didn't.  I could have followed the plan, but I didn't.  I purposefully chose not to do those things and it didn't go very well.

Now, I really feel like I'm ready to get back at it.  All of the sudden my motivation has picked up and after 4 and a half days I am still 100% on plan.  The scale and my pants are thanking me.  At meeting on Saturday we talked about committing to following the plan 100% for just 1 week.  I thought, I can do that.  It's just 1 week.  I've done it before.  The extra motivation came when I weighed in on Saturday and I had gained enough weight back that I got an extra point to eat every day.  Not good.  The awesome thing is that since I've been planning my food I've been able to indulge and splurge on a few things while still staying on plan.  This includes such things as a carmel apple cobbler at BD's Mongolian BBQ, and a hot dog and beer at the ballgame tonight. 

My husband has even offered to sweeten the pot so to speak.  We leave for a cruise in 24 and a half weeks.  I really wanted to lose 20 more pounds before we go.  He challeneged me to lose 40.  I thought he was crazy, so after some negotiating, we agreed upon 32 pounds.  That's 1.28 pounds per week.  If I can do that, then he is paying for all of my expenses on the cruise up to $1000.  How awesome is that?  I know I can do it.  At first I was worried that I wouldn't be able to have those yummy, "bad" things, but after tracking and planning this week, I know I can, it just takes a little bit of time and effort on my part to fit it in.  No more mindless eating.  No more grabbing the chip bag and taking it to the couch. 

The way I'm going to make it to my big goal is to set smaller, weekly goals.  This week, my goal was to follow the Weight Watchers plan 100% as written.  There have been a couple days where I've only gotten in 4 out of my 5 fruits/veggies, but other days I've gotten more so I'm counting it as even.  Next week my goal will be to, again, follow the plan 100% as written, but make sure I get in ALL of my good health guidlines.  I have also commited to only going out for lunch once a week.  That means a lot of cooking on Sunday for me. 

I need your help with all of this though.  I need you to follow up with me, check in on me, nag me, whatever, so that I'm accountable to someone other than myself for staying on track.  At the beginning of each week I will post my goals here, and then at the end of the week I will post whether or not I met them, what I learned, and how the scale reacted. 

Starting Weight on 9/17/11: 193.6
Goal Weight for March 10, 2012: 161.5