52 Days Till Summer Challenge!

A couple of days ago, I joined the "52 Days Till Summer Challenge" on Dancing Through Life, which is a great blog that I follow.  If you don't read that blog and you love Weight Watchers blogs, I highly recommend taking a looksie! Ashley is an amazing blogger.  :-)


It's a great blog!

If you click on the link, you can read all about the challenge!  However, for those of you who would rather just read about it right here, I'll copy and paste some of the post, plus give a basic summary for you.

It's just a weight loss/getting healthy challenge to motivate people to JUST DO IT.  Especially people who have either A) fallen off the wagon or B) lost some motivation lately. 

I fall between these categories, because lately I've been a bit off-plan with the Simply Filling Technique (re: I haven't been listening to my hunger signals AT ALL) and I am getting demotivated with how long these last pounds are taking to come off.

Here was the first challenge of the challenge, which was due today:

"To recap this week’s challenge:

1. Develop your list of reasons and commitments. Print it off and put it somewhere where you can see it every day. In your wallet. At your desk. In the space next to your bedroom door. Just post it and read them every day. And start working towards them!

2. Get moving! Give yourself a sticker every day you work out.

3. Sign up! Leave me a comment so I know you’re doing this with me "

I'm excited about this challenge because it came at such a great time for me!  I really needed some extra "oomph" from someone, and Ashley gave it to me.  :-) 

Ashley asked today:

"How was your week? How did you find the challenge? Did you come up with some compelling reasons that truly resonate with you? What are your commitments? How did you begin to work them into your life?"

Here was my response:

My reasons:


1) health! Time to be the healthiest I've ever been; if not now, then when?

2) my goal jeans. Yep, I have a pair of goal jeans, size 10s that I have dreamt of fitting back into since I started this WLJ as a size 20. I'm almost into a 12 now;  I'm making real progress with this one!

3) NYC skinny. This one is definately the most vain goal I have, but I'm planning to be a New Yorker within the next few years, and I want to be one of the skinny and beautiful ones. (size 10 skinny, not size 0 skinny)

These all resonate equally with me, and are at the forefront of my mind every time I make a healthy or less than healthy decision.

Committments:

1) Stick to the Power Foods as much as I can! (I'm on the SFT, so this one is getting easier)

2) Don't eat junk food just because I can. Only eat it if it's what I REALLY WANT

3) Exercise 6 days a week, increase the time now that school's out for the summer




I don't think it's too late to join in on the challenge!  I'll be updating my progress on Fridays, since that's when Ashley is going to be doing the challenge check-ins.  Woo-hoo for my first blog challenge from another blog!!! 

The Firm Wave, measurements, and a possible modified WW plan for me...

I've decided to finally start taking measurements of my body! I did this at the beginning of my WLJ, and I would love to see how far I've come since then! Unfortunately, I can't remember where I put them, but as soon as I find my original measurements, I will share my results with you. For now, I've decided to "put up or shut up" when it comes to my goal jeans.

Yes, I have raised my goal weight, but I still dream of fitting into those size 10's. Here's a lovely picture of my "goal jeans". They are American Eagle size 10 (and yes I know that is a teeny-bopper store!)



They actually currently go up past my thighs and hips, but are about 4 or 5 inches short of being able to zip up. :-) So, I'm making it a new goal of mine to focus on losing inches, not just pounds!

One way to up my inches lost is to change up my workouts, which is something that I discussed on here recently. I've decided that I really need to add more strength training to my workouts to start seeing maximum results.

And since I get bored with strength easily, I've decided to trick myself by using fun workout DVDs that combine cardio with strength. I dug out my Firm Wave and the DVDs that came with it.

Wow, I forgot what a great workout this is! I did the 40 minutes DVD last night, and this morning I'm feeling the burn in exactly the places that I want to firm up!!! (hips, upper thighs, lower stomach) so I know that adding this workout into my routine will help. Plus, it's 40 minutes long, the exact amount of time that I have to exercise before work. How perfect is that?!

Anyway, I am down .8 for my second week on the Simply Filling Technique. YAY!!!

I have decided to definately follow WW as written until I reach 145, and then to slowly start modifying it to fit my needs and wants.

Here are my thoughts on the "Leah's Modified WW Plan" so far:

• -Stay on the Simply Filling Technique
• -except add the following foods to the Power Foods list: nuts, natural nut butters, avacados, healthy no-sugar-added cold cereals, almond milk
• -Reduce Weekly Points Allowance to 10-15 to make up for my Power Foods additions...
• -Eat all AP if I want/need to

What do you think?

I think that those modifications could keep me ridiculously happy and able to stay on WW (even if not the "real" plan). I'll let you know how it goes, but it's not going to start until I'm maintaining for a bit.