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Still on track for my Labor Day Blitz, but next Monday's goal might be an over-reach....we'll see. In any event, I'm pleased I FINALLY saw the 152's. This is the lowest I've been all year but still 7 pounds above the goal I hit last summer.
This particular portion of the journey has been agonizing. It's a good thing that it was not like this when I began back in 2010 or I'm not sure how far I would have gone. Last night I picked up my copy of DANDR to see if I could glean any insights. I usually go back into the more recent books, but DANDR has a slightly different slant, perhaps because it was written by Atkins, himself. I was pleasantly surprised to read that what I'm doing right now is very close to what he recommends when a person in Maintenance needs to recover from a "binge." Had I done this back in January after the holidays, I might not have had to spend MONTHS trying to do what just wasn't going to happen. Live and learn.
While walking this AM, I realized that I was going to have to re-think this year's holidays and their food emphasis. In the past, while on this WOE, I've had perfectly acceptable foods for the holidays, but probably too many of them. And, of course, a few off-plan items were specifically planned. I knew I was going to have to scale back the off-plan items quite a bit, probably back to what I did in 2010, but now I'm thinking that even my on-plan foods might need to be adjusted, as well.
Somewhere, there's a middle ground. I believe that even on this WOE, the holidays will have some unusual, perhaps off-plan foods and that's perfectly fine. But after doing pretty much OK in 2010, not quite as well in 2011 with more indulgences, and definitely not as well in 2012, I know I need to reassess.
I do NOT want to repeat this year....gaining over the holidays and taking most of the new year to get back to where I was, assuming I eventually get there. That's no way to manage my weight. Even with this newly-found method to finally get into some kind of loss mode, it's not fun and it is nowhere near easy, either. This is taking a significant mental effort just to stay the course. That was not the case for most of my journey, previously. I guess what I'm doing right now is cementing in my brain the fact that I do NOT want to stray outside my 5-pound Maintenance window again.
Well, I'm off for breakfast/lunch. I took advantage of a slightly cooler day and walked the full 3.1-mile route with my Collie; my Lab gal was along for 1.6 miles. Then, I splurged and allowed them both in the pool to cool off. (Translation: I'll be doing a big load of dog towels later today!)
EDIT ON FOOD: DH shared with me his sandwich....had one bite of low-carb bread, lunch meat slice, melted cheese. Also ate a small dill pickle.
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