Freedom from Overeating

I realized today something amazing…

 

I am developing this amazing sense of freedom. It has been building up slowly, but I actually came to the realization at lunch time. My lunch for the day consisted of two lightly salted rice cakes, 1 serving of garlic hummus, 1c of fresh papaya and a squeeze of lime. It was fantastic! I feel fulfilled, satisfied, and proud of myself and my choices actually.

The amazing thing to me though, is that I don’t feel starving. I never imagined I could eat small portions of food and feel not only satisfied, but full. I thought I would always struggle with weight loss. I thought I would always suffer. I was afraid of the sentiment that weight loss isn’t about dieting, but about making permanent changes because I thought I would always be miserable.

Right now though, I feel free. I feel free that I don’t need to eat 2 burritos with all of the toppings, and then some chips, and then probably some cookies to top off a meal. Yes I used to eat like that. That wasn’t even that long ago. A month or so ago, a meal of that size and consistency wouldn’t have made me bat an eye. Now however, I cringe a little. I won’t lie and say that I don’t crave a burrito now and then, but I don’t need to eat 2 of them smothered in calories and fat and I don’t need to add a helping of sides that are just as bad.

The weight watchers system works for me. It is helping me learn to be accountable for myself without punishing me for mistakes.

But the work, the effort and the commitment come from me. This wouldn’t work if I weren’t willing to put in the work and the time to be successful. I’ve often said that you need to be in the right mind set to make the changes I am talking about. I still believe that. I am in a place where I want results. I want to be healthy. I want to look great. And maybe most of all, I want to feel good about myself.

And just incase, the vampires are hanging around outside with the zombies, I’m going to keep buying that garlic hummus.

A day out

Today my wonderful husband and I went for a picnic at Rainbow Springs state park. It was lovely. The entire time we were eating and spending some much needed quiet time together.

After lunch, we had planned to walk a couple of miles through the park. However, it was just too hot. We did about 30 minutes of walking even though we were there for much longer. But we had to take frequent breaks because of the heat.

We got our lunch at Walmart. We picked up a sub to share, a package of strawberries, about 1.4 pound of fresh green beans and a lovely papaya! Oh, a cucumber too. We packed it all up in my basket and headed out.

Now, however, I am so frustrated because I really thought I would have no trouble finding the sub online. But apparently, nope. No nutritional information at all. So it is very difficult to track my points for the day.

Also, I broke one of my own cardinal rules. I was feeling a bit on the fat side earlier in the week. So I weighed in early. I was down an additional 2 lbs which is awesome. But when I do that, I obsess. So I weighed in this morning again… and NOT down those additional 2 lbs. It’s so stupid. I know that body weight can change drastically during a day. My weigh is in tomorrow.. you know the official one… and I had this huge half of a sub that I can’t track. So I am just feeling frustrated with myself at the moment.

Also… lesson learned. No early weigh ins. They make me crazy.

Sticky Note Saturday!

Motivational Monday

“Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration.” ~Lou Erickson

I read once that gardening is one of the best all over workouts ever. I live in Florida. You would think I would be outside year round toiling in the garden. I wish I was the kind of person who gardens. I love flowers. I love fresh vegetables. I love watching things grow. It would seem natural. I do not however… love the THINGS out there. We have THINGS outside in Florida.

We have mosquitoes the size of small birds. That is the family joke you know. The state bird of Florida is actually the mosquito. We also have poisonous snakes. They have been several times in the yard.

So that might be something to work on this year. Learning to deal with the things… learning to love the outside. Well… I DO love the outside. I just love the outside near the coast. I grew up on an island… a five minute drive from the bay. It’s an adjustment.

Besides… if I needed another reason to take up gardening…

Sticky-Note Saturday!!

 

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Weight Watchers

So I am now three days into my new Weight Watchers program. So far I am completely loving it. It’s actually FUN tracking food. That right there might be the secret to success in the first place.

Today was a testament to how well it’s working. We had breakfast with some friends of ours. It was so lovely. It was a full out Sunday Breakfast type meal. So I had very small portions, with the exception of the bagels. I tried just having a half, but broke down and ate the other half anyway.

But I had 1 egg. 1 Sausage link. 1/2 cup hash browns and a bagel with cream cheese. Not too long ago I probably would have had double the portions at least. But I knew that I was going to have to come home, and enter that information and look at those numbers. I knew I would have to eat later in the day also.

It was still a 16pt breakfast. It could have been so much worse. I am so proud of myself. I really am doing it. Yesterday, despite the heat, I even went for a little walk yesterday. It was only to the mailbox, but that was a little bit of a workout for me. I need to start slowly or I’m going to kill myself in this heat.

It’s looking pretty nice outside. I promised hubby I would watch a movie with him. Afterwards, maybe I can convince him to take a little walk.

Love

It’s motivational Monday here on the zombie blog. I feel as if I have a whole host of things to talk about today. We shall see how much of it manifests into writing.

First of all, I want to talk about a quote I found.

“The greatest weakness of most humans is their hesitancy to tell others how much they love them while they're alive.”
— O.A. Battista

I am not even exactly sure why this struck me as deeply as it does. I think maybe because sometimes I struggle with telling people that I love them. Well no, that isn’t really true. There are only some people I struggle to tell how much I love them. My parents are some of those people. I don’t tell them enough how much they mean to me. I am going to add that to my list of self improvements to make.

But this is about motivation. So, one of the people whom I happen to love very much is a woman whose life parallels my own in many ways. She struggles with many of the same issues I do too. We recently took note of how our lives progress down similar paths and of the struggles we have over come so far. She has been one of the people who has been travelling with me on my journey from the beginning.

So my dear S. over at MissAdventures…Thank you for always being there and being supportive. Thank you for getting me excited about my life when I really am not all that enthusiastic about it. Thank you for giving me a place to hide form the zombies for a while. I love you!

I also want to take a moment to say thank you to R. I’ve known her since high school and she has been a tremendous inspiration to me on this trip. She never fails to reach out to me with advice or encouragement and it’s in part thank to her and her fabulous blog (I go through life…), that I started blogging myself. She advised me to invite my zombies to tea, and taking a good hard look at them was very helpful to me. She also was instrumental in my getting my body bugg which is an invaluable too. Thank you R. I love you!

Motivation!!! So, I joined weight watchers online today. I can’t express how exciting this is. It’s like an entire contingent of people on anti zombie brigade! (I’m not sure they know this) I am actually excited about tracking food again! For the love of all that is good (including anti zombie-ists), I am excited about food tracking again. If that isn’t motivational, I don’t know what is.

Do not become a zombie burger. If you are close to this state… there is still hope! If you haven’t actually started munching brains yet that is. I’ve gotten close. But I am still outrunning them.

I am also planning on renewing my body bugg today. I need it. It keeps me honest. It also makes me feel awesome when I beat the calories burned form the day before, or the week before. Reminders of doing well… or even when you’re slipping back are awesome. I’ve put weight on since not having it. A Lot.

So today is a good day. I’m thankful, I’m motivated and apparently I am also verbose. So there you have it!

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