Monday/Weigh-In + Wednesday Weekly Combo

I didn't get to post anything on Monday and today is usually the day I talk about the weekly meeting topic so I decided to combine them.

So first, the weigh-in...

Last week: 125.2
This week: 124.6
Difference: - 0.6
Maintenance: Success!

Last week I had a rough week and I had gained 1.7, but this week by Monday it had started to come off and actually as of this writing I'm back down to 122.2, so definitely successful this week.

I had to just rein things in. The week before when I'd gained 1.7 I had skipped a couple of workouts and I ate well outside my points, so it wasn't a surprise. Last week I was also kind of high on points. I didn't go over, but I used more than usual most days. So when I stepped on the scale Monday it wasn't really a surprise either that I'd only lost 0.6 over the week.

But the last couple of days I've been really on point with both workouts and with food, and the results are showing!

Now moving on to this weeks meeting topic: Time Management

This is a challenge for everyone I think! There so much to do and so little time in a single day, it is hard to take care of everything and when that happens taking care of ourselves usually gets moved to the bottom of the list.

But on this journey - you can't do that. You just can't. And for the first year or so after my daughter was born I didn't make the time for myself. I just felt like between caring for a baby and going back to work there weren't enough minutes in a day. I was sleep deprived which didn't help either.

After that first year though I found ways to make it work and I had lost all of my pregnancy weight. I was going back to meetings with some friends and I had started running with a friend who's baby girl was close in age to mine, so we put them in our jogging strollers and went for it.

I found ways to make time.

It also helps that I have a supremely supportive husband who helps me meal plan, and meal prep and takes care of our little girl so I can get my workouts done.

But even so, it's something I do struggle with. Now that my daughter is old enough to be involved in activities like dance, gymnastics and soccer, I find that there is less time again. What hasn't changed though are my nonnegotiables. I need to work out. I need to eat healthy. These things can not be put aside. The one thing I do tend to put aside is sleep. I have been known to stay up till 11:30 reading, or cleaning, or doing something else just because that is the only quite time I have after my daughter gets to sleep.

Some ways I've found to save time as far as working the weight watchers program are to meal prep on Sundays so that during the week I don't have to cook much. I make five sandwiches for lunches on Sunday. I make a two big dinners too - one in the slow cooker that I usually immediately portion out and freeze for leftovers later in the week, and one roast (turkey breast, chicken, pork loins, etc.) that I can serve for dinner on Sunday and repurpose for another meal later in the week. So for example I'll serve steak and baked potatoes on Sunday, then later in the week I'll slice up the steak and make fajitas with it. Or I'll make pork tenderloin and serve with roasted veggies on Sunday, then slice it up and make cuban sandwiches later on.

Saturday morning I make a menu and a shopping list while my daughter is in dance, then we go right to the supermarket and do all the food shopping for the week.

In my tracker I have a pretty consistent rotations of lunches and breakfasts that I've saved as meals so for example I have a meal saved as "Kashi Breakfast". I swipe once and it tracks the kashi, milk, banana, berries and coffee with creamer. Same for lunch. I saved "My Lunch" which includes all the ingredients of the turkey sandwich I eat every day, plus the snacks I usually pack such as apples, pears, cheese sticks, carrots, clementines, etc. All that is tracked with one swipe.

As far as finding time to workout I've learned that it's ok to leave my daughter at daycare for an extra 45 minutes so that I can take care of myself. I used to have mom guilt about that - like how can I be a good mom if I'm leaving her with someone else for a minute longer that absolutely necessary. And maybe if she weren't so happy and comfortable there I might feel differently. But she absolutely loves it and if I pick her up too early she gets all bent out of shape about it. So I don't feel guilty about taking a little extra me time. And on weekends my husband is happy to play with her so I can workout too. Though now that I'm back to DVD's at home and little girl is older, she is content to play by herself while I workout if hubby happens to be working.

And those are some of the ways I manage time a little better so that I can follow WW, stay on program, exercise, and take care of myself.

As for this blog - I'm thinking of reformatting a bit.

Monday will still be my weigh in day, but I have a hard time talking about the weekly meeting topic on Wednesdays when I don't get to my meeting until Fridays. So I was thinking about changing it to Wednesday Work-outs (talking fitness) and Friday I'll talk about the meetings. But I need a catchy title, like Friday Focus, or Friday Fundamentals... Something like that!  Any thoughts?

Follow me on WW Connect: bridgette_gallagher and let me know what you think.