The plan...it's WORKING

"it isn't enough to WANT to meet your goal, it take blood, tears, and sweat to ACHIEVE your goal."-whomever Megan stole it from...

Well, things are moving swimmingly in the right direction with the new Weight Watchers Points Plus program. Last night's weigh in had a loss of .8lbs which may not seem significant but it is for three reasons

• I actually ate before my weigh in last night (just a 1/2 sandwich but still)
• It's PMS week...I always gain during PMS week
• Two big dinners in a row this weekend and I still lost.

I'm proud of the .8 lbs. And I took that to the gym afterward and jogged 4 miles.

So I have not mentioned that I am in training for the Pittsburgh Half Marathon in May. It's the same one I did last year which I ended up walking all but the last 3 miles. This year, I'm preparing for it though. And I'm doing it through the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. You raise money for them, they will train you for an endurance event. It's pretty cool and a great group of people. You get assigned a coach, and a mentor who will help guide you through the process. as well as an honored person--a cancer patient or survivor--to help inspire you and share their story as you raise money.

The official training doesn't start until January, but this week I had my first run with my mentor and a group of women also training for a race. I was nervous because I had just started running again and didn't know how I'd fare with a group of people. Surprisingly it went really well and I was able to keep up. It was a reasonably cold and sunny day and we went to a nearby college to run. We did 3 miles and it was great. It was definitely a slow jog but made me feel better about being able to do this. My mentor Melissa is really nice & along with a couple of other mentors, made it a fun experience. Who knew?

Anyway--here are my successes of the week:

• Tracked 5/7 days (and sort of tracked over the weekend)
• Stayed within my points all but Fri/Sat/Sun
• Earned 26 activity points with 3 days of running
• Was able to run 3 miles consistently without too many breaks
• Made some great food choices (like passing on pizza for a better lunch, snacks like Greek yogurt & berries to keep me satisfied, lots of fruit!, paid attention to portions...)

And my goals for this week:

• Run 3x (four if possible, at least one day outside); 3-4 miles each
• Keep tracking
• Focus on getting in all healthy guidelines each day (water, fruits & veggies, milk, oil, protein, whole grain, exercise).
• Plan out obstacles for week & how to get around them
• Start to incorporate strength training workouts

This week's meeting topic was planning ahead for obstacles such as holidays, holiday parties, office treats, etc...What have you done or what can you do to plan ahead for your obstacles?

Until next time