I’m losing weight again! Whoop! Was it because I changed some things up this week? Was it because I stuck to my weekly meal plans? Was it because I watched my containers better? Was it due to unexplainable forces because our bodies are just weird when it comes to weight fluctuation?
I have no idea. But whatever it is, I’ll take it.
How Did Week 6 Go on my Weight Loss Journey?
This week went pretty well for me. I was emotionally fine all week. Had a night or two of not sleeping very well but I pushed play on my workouts anyway. Thanks to the scale showing weight loss again, I’m a bit more enthusiastic than I was last week. I should watch that though – just to keep it in check. I don’t want to get to the point where the scale dictates my moods.
But I won’t lie and say it doesn’t feel good. 🙂
I also am seeing success in using meal plans so I will discuss more of that later in this post.
Nutrition This Week: 6 out of 7 days
Most of the days went according to plan. Last Monday, however, was the outlier.
I had planned for some self-care. I scheduled a manicure and pedicure (my first since the global pandemic started) and had planned to come home and have a nice, healthy dinner of salmon, asparagus, and quinoa. At least, that’s what my meal plan told me.
I get home around 6:30 pm and go to the freezer to pull out a salmon filet. I had assumed (without reading the bag) like most frozen anything, you can bake it from frozen and not need to thaw it out. But, oh no. Not these beauties. You need to thaw them before you bake them. And according to the package, you must thaw them via refrigerator and not running hot water or anything like that.
I’m not a good enough cook to start playing around with following directions like that so I was essentially just out of luck for having salmon for dinner. And at this point it was 6:45 pm and my window of not being hangry was rapidly closing.
Then my boyfriend announced he was going to have Chinese food.
That did it. I succumbed. I told him to grab me some sugar-laden sesame chicken and would he hurry up please? 🙂
Now, all that being said, I tried to be as “healthy” as I could with this unhealthy choice. I didn’t eat any of the rice. The sugar in the sauce alone would account for my yellow carb container for the meal. I watched my portion size so that I didn’t go over and I loaded up every broccoli they had put in that box on my plate. Yes, all 3 stems of broccoli. LOL.
I then told my boyfriend that he could have my leftovers the next day if he wanted but I was only going to eat my one serving.
And you know what? My weight didn’t even fluctuate the next day! So while I won’t be doing that often, it really wasn’t so bad.
Fitness: 5 out of 5 days
I’ll be honest. I’m killing it with the workouts. I haven’t missed a day in 43 days – AND I’m working out at 5:30 am every morning. This coming from someone who literally went YEARS without working out at all.
I used to even tell myself there was no way I could go from not working out at all to working out 4-5 times a week so I had better start with just one day a week and work my way up.
Well, this is my future self telling my past self, “you are so wrong.” I just needed to find a workout I enjoyed doing. I needed to find a couple of accountability buddies who are quickly becoming friends. (Hi Amy and Kelly! – they are the only ones that read this blog anyway) 🙂
You can do this too. Find a workout you look forward to doing. Find a support system that will keep you on track when you don’t want to do it. Then schedule it out and no matter what…. always. push. play.
Even if you don’t feel like it. Even if you didn’t sleep well the night before and know it’s not going to be your best workout. (Been there, done that.) Always push play. Some workouts will be better than others and that is okay. All that matters is that you’re showing up consistently. That will lead you to results.
Meal Plans and Your Weight Loss Journey:
Meal plans. People seem to mostly love and appreciate them, but some people struggle to follow them or find them too inflexible.
I am in the I love them and need them camp. My boyfriend is in the “they are too inflexible” camp. And it has caused a couple of fights in the past if I’m honest. But hear me out.
The first 3 weeks of my weight loss journey, I didn’t do meal plans really. I planned out meals the night before so that I could plan out my container count, but I didn’t plan farther out than that. I was trying to understand my boyfriend’s point of view. His thought is that you don’t know what you’re going to feel like eating 3 days from now for dinner. It takes away the spontaneity of “Man, I’m really craving this for dinner tonight, let’s have that.” And he’s right on both counts. So I figured, I’d plan just the next day out (because let’s face it, you can’t always wing the container counts without ending up having salad dressing, peanut butter (or oil), and cheese for dinner.)
But that didn’t work for me. At all.
I found myself eating the same thing day after day because of not knowing what else to do – and not having the mental space to plan it out. Then I also found myself not really getting all my containers in (or sometimes even going over) because of what we had, or didn’t have, in the house already. I’m also just a structure person. I really thrive with routine and structure.
So, on week 4, I started planning out the entire week at a time and I never looked back.
Are there times when I don’t feel like eating what I planned to eat that night? Yes. If I can easily change it up while maintaining the same container count, than I will. An example, instead of eating yet another salad one night, I made a charcuterie board with protein, veggies, cheese, and dijon mustard. Same container count, different format. And I was happy.
However, most times, I was completely fine with what I had planned for that day’s meals. And there were other benefits that, to me, are priceless.
I was able to not have to worry about whether or not I was going to get all my containers in that day or if I’d go over. When a Zoom meeting at work went long, I was able to run downstairs and make my snack in just a few minutes instead of having to decide what to eat first and count containers. When I went to run errands, I knew how to time it so that I wouldn’t get hangry. I’m essentially a toddler. I need snack time or you will not like me.
For me, the benefits of my weekly meal plans outweighed not feeling like eating something one night. It also kept me on track. I was less likely to stray and eat things I shouldn’t be (minus my Chinese Food Monday.)
But to each his own. Do what works for you. But if you’re struggling to stay on track, try planning out an entire week of meals and see if that helps.
Weekly Grade: 87 out of 100.
The Chinese food dinged me this week. But overall, I made healthy choices, stuck to the plan, worked out all the days I was supposed to, and felt pretty darn good about myself and the journey.
Results to Date: Down 8 pounds.
Lost two more pounds this week! And if I had blogged yesterday, it would have been three pounds. Let that be a clear example of weight fluctuation at it’s finest! LOL.
But regardless of that, I’m feeling good. My total goal is to lose 30 pounds and I am so close to being 1/3 of the way there!
Let’s celebrate wins this week!
P.S – See previous check-ins here.
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