This morning . . .

I did a little happy dance. I went to get dressed and thought I would try on some of my work pants (that I haven't fit into for several months) and sure enough, they fit! I've have a good couple of weeks and the weight loss has clicked again, and it feels great to finally be back in my pants! I still have several pounds to go, and the pants don't quite fit perfectly yet, but they zip, and they aren't obscenely/offensively tight! I'm bottom heavy so when I gained a few pounds during our spring move, it all went to my hips, legs and butt. In the summer it wasn't too big of a deal because I could wear loose fitting skirts and dresses, but now that fall/winter is here, I needed to slim down so I could wear my dress pants.

Which brings me to a brief update on my weight loss and running. I stopped logging in my weight loss a few weeks ago because I seemed to gain, lose, gain, lose. I was extremely frustrated. I finally went and spoke with my weight watchers meeting leader and shared my struggle. It made me realize the obvious: that it was the weekends I was really struggling with. So much so that I wasn't tracking at all on the weekends. (With weight watchers each food has a point value, and your supposed to track everything you eat. You get a certain amount of daily points, and then 35 extra points you can use whenever you want during the week). The other problem was that I was using about 5 of my extra weekly points a day which meant that when the weekend rolled around I only had about 10 extra points left. My meeting leader pointed out that if I want to splurge on the weekend I need to stick to my daily points during the week, so that I have 35 points to splurge on the weekends. Although obvious and simple, it was exactly what I needed to do. And surprisingly sticking to my daily points has been easier than I thought. Here's to hoping that the weight loss continues and I eventually meet my goal.

And in regards to running, I haven't advanced much, but I've remained steady. I'm running about twice a week, and between 2.5 and 3.5 miles at a time. I enjoy running in the summer, but I have a habit of quitting when fall comes along because my asthma makes running in cool/cold weather a challenge. But this year I have access to a fabulous indoor track thanks to Mr. Dawkter's health club discount for being affiliated with his hospital. So I am trying to keep up with it, and just move it inside. So far so good, just hoping to eventually increase my mileage now that it's becoming a little easier (knock on wood). I'm still hoping to run some kind of race in the spring. I'm hoping that if I set a goal like participating in a race it will keep me motivated over the winter months.

So after a few weeks of feeling like I was treading water, I finally feel on track again. It's wonderful to look in the mirror and feel good about myself again. I forgot what that felt like! For those of you trying to meet fitness goals, or lose a few pounds, stick with it, and try something new if you need to. It doesn't come easy, but it's definitely rewarding!