Whew!

Is anyone else secretly glad that Christmas is over? We had a fairly healthy Christmas Eve dinner with my parents that included seafood, salad and baked potatoes. Then I sort of forgot to acquire any food for Christmas Day after my parents left to go back home. Soooooo, that left Dave and I at a Chinese buffet for Christmas, and ewww, OMG, it was gross. It definitely left me yearning to get back on track. My weight this morning is 213, which I am just sick over, but all I can do is get my eyes back on the prize and get a new game plan going. Here are a few things I've been thinking about:

-Not paying retail for clothes until I've made goal. This will be quite the challenge, as I LOVE to shop, but there are tons of consignment shops here in town and also lots of rich people in this town who probably switch wardrobes every couple of months. This will also help in my money-saving venture. I have a few financial goals that I'd like to achieve before the wedding and prior to Dave and I purchasing a house here. I spend a LOT of unnecessary money on clothes/makeup/accessories, and there is no reason why I can't scale back- especially if I'm on the path to goal. No point in dropping wads of cash for clothes that may not be my size in a few months.

-Of course, assuming that I'm going to get to goal this time means that I need to change my thinking. I need to get better at forging ahead, no matter what the circumstances. I've maintained only a 5-7 pound weight loss in just over a year. What is stalling me? I believe it has to do with my new habit that I've developed that includes not forgiving myself when I slip up. I've gotten in the bad, bad habit of making a mistake and then deciding I'll make 10 more that day and I delay "starting over" for several days, if not weeks. I need to break this habit and I need to break it fast! I commit to drinking a glass of water and taking two minutes to meditate after each time I make a misstep. For instance, at work, if I indulge in something that makes me go over my points by 5, or 10, or whatever, I'll get right back on track by having some water and regrouping. The old me would indulge on a few extra points, feel guilty, then decide "to hell with it", and end up getting something unhealthy for lunch break, eating a bagel on the way home, and then snacking before going to bed. At the top of my list is learning to regroup and redirect myself when I slip up.

-Getting to the gym 4-5 times a week. During the holiday season, I've been getting there twice a week- enough to meet with my trainer. I already feel a difference, but I know that I need to kick things into overdrive. In addition to my two training sessions per week, I plan on getting a third day of strength training in on my own, plus two more days of aerobics classes. I definitely have anxiety about going to the classes and looking like a fool, but my guess is that I am not the only one who feels this way. I'm getting my calendar out as soon as I'm done here and making my work schedule jive with my gym schedule.

-More trips to the grocery store. This means two things: 1) More cooking. 2) Less stocking up on junk. There is no sense in spending $100 a week at the grocery store. Usually, we end up changing our minds on what we want to eat, or I think we're going to eat way more than we do, and we have a fridge full of rotten, expired food. We have a grocery store less than a mile from our house, so it is my pledge to spend just a little time each day planning for dinner and working on keeping just the right amount of food in the house.

These aren't "resolutions" per se, but definitely four things that I really want to focus on. I think they will be the key to breaking out of my old mindset and getting to goal.