As I mentioned in my previous post, I signed up for Mel’s
eight-week tracker challenge. For this challenge, I need to track all of the
food I eat and the exercise I do for the eight weeks.
Well, one week down. How did I do? Well, I wrote down
everything I ate. It wasn’t pretty. There was greasy, fatty Chinese food and
lots of homemade chocolate cookies (it’s my own fault that I made on Sunday
when it was too miserable to leave the house). I didn’t fulfill my good health
guidelines for a few days either. And I didn’t calculate points plus values on
a few of the days. As I said, not pretty. No, I don’t remember all of this; I
don’t have a photographic memory. I wrote it all down.
It is no surprise with the type of foods I ate that I gained
a bit of weight. I wasn’t surprised at all when I saw the number on the scale.
It was a little reminder that I can’t eat like that and expect to lose (not
that I expected to). That’s the thing with keeping track of what you eat; you
know when you’ve had a good week and when you’ve had a not so good week.
I was far from perfect this week and I’m not striving for
perfection. Perfection is impossible and leads to failure. Consistency is key,
and the more I eat the right foods the more successful I will be. This week I
just strive to be better than I was last week. This is basically what all of my
goals are: to be better than I was before.
Goal-setting is so important for me during this journey. It
helps keep me focused on a specific task. I believe this tracker challenge is
really helping me to focus on wheat I need to do to be successful. I used to
carry this book around me. Every Tuesday (my weigh in day used to be Tuesday,
so I would start fresh Tuesday mornings), I would write on one sheet of paper
my goals for the week on one side and my NSVs for the week on the other. I
stopped doing it several months ago. Well, I started doing it again this past
week. I find it so important to get those goals down in writing as well as what
I have accomplished.
Yes, not taking a free donut from the work kitchen may not
seem much to some, but it is a big step during that weight loss journey. It is
so easy to focus on all of the things I do “wrong” that I don’t focus on all of
the positive changes. By keeping track of the NSVs, I am acknowledging all of
the hard work I am doing and all of the small ways I am changing. By focusing
on the negative, I am more likely to think I can’t do it give up.
Besides, keeping track of all of those little NSVs is a
great way to see how far I’ve traveled on this journey. Being at the half-way
point, it can seem at times like I will never get there, but when I look at all
of the little things I’ve accomplished and all of the ways I have already
changed for the better, it doesn’t seem hopeless. When I look back at my books
years from now, I want to remember how great it felt to run a 5k for the first
time, the first time I tasted a persimmons (mmm, liquid sugar!) or when I put
on a shirt this morning that didn’t fit six months ago but fits me now.
By the way, this is also why I started this blog; just
another way to keep a record of all that I have done and will do. I’m sure one day, perhaps
when I reach my goal weight, I will read this post and remember fondly Mel’s tracker
challenge and it got me back to tracking again.
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