Day 14 - Hurray!!! It's working!

It's not that many hours since I last posted, but one crucial thing has changed.  I have stepped on my scale and I have not felt the urge to burst into tears!  In total, I am down 3.4 pounds in the two weeks since I started this project.  Hurray! I actually lost weight during a really tough week where I didn't reach all of my behavioural goals.  This doesn't tell me that cheating is never punished --what it does tell me is that "all or nothing" attitudes about self-care are foolish (we all know that voice that says "oh well since you've had a chocolate bar now, the day is ruined so you might as well eat whatever other garbage you want").  It tells me that rising above those attitudes even after a moment of weak behaviour can still bring positive results.  This seems to be a lesson that I have to keep learning --for today at any rate, a little bit of the lesson has sunk in.  I am sure that people with really big successes have learned the lesson in spades --check out Amazon Runner for an example http://amazonrunner.blogspot.com/.

I just wanted to ramble a bit more about yesterday's belief topic and what I'm going to do over the next three weeks to strengthen my belief in my own ability to lose weight.  I mentioned yesterday that I'm leaving for a three week holiday in California --well, now is my opportunity in a stress-free context to focus on belief. 

I've always been a bit skeptical of the whole visualization side of things.  That said, lately I've been speaking to some people who I respect that acually make use of those techniques; and they've given me some good exercises to try.  I am going to spend at least 15 minutes of every day doing some visualization, and will continue to listen to Dr. Wayne Dyer's "Excuses Be Gone" CD.  To reinforce that belief with action, I am also going to exercise every day.  This last goal will be a bit of a challenge during the road trip portions of my holiday (I'm driving there with my dog Gromette to stay at my parents' place --actually driving down with Mom and Dad as a convoy; and my husband will fly to Palm Springs and meet us later).  But it won't be impossible --you can always find a safe place to pull off to the side of the road and walk; plus as a Curves Member with a travel card I can probably find a few gyms along the way, and I think I will bring some hand weights with me too for good measure.  And of course, I will be looking to get a minimum of seven servings of fruits and vegetables in every day.

It's funny -even though a lot of my life involves time spent in a car (driving from home to my job out of town two hours away), I am looking forward to some time on the road alone.  Gromette will be there to keep me from getting too lonely, of course.  But I suspect the solo driving time in a context where I'm not en route to or from a job (and not wound up about the latest work crisis or project) will allow me time to reflect more on the things I've been pushing out of my mind while working on the dissertation.

Anyway, time for breakfast --think I'll celebrate today's scale victory with some tomatoes and balsamic vinegar  plus a decaffinated skim milk latte.  Ciao!