The elevator for success is broken....please use the stairs one, one step at a time!

Yo-

Well I am rather disgruntled at the moment. Went to Weight Watchers all giddy and excited, stepped on the scale, and discovered that I gained 0.4 lbs! As a female human being I'm shocked and pissed at myself because I worked out so much this week and watched my food intake for the most part. I did sit and ponder about the extra snacks I had on a few occasions though. Perhaps they added up and counteracted against my desired loss. The scientist in me is telling me to relax because my exercise pattern will catch up with me and I will lose a lot of weight if I keep up with it. Plus I lost 3.6 lbs last week and that is a lot of weight loss for 7 days. I just wanted to get below the 270 mark so bad.

The main theme of the meeting was about the Stages of Change. We talked about precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintainence. There is another section of the stages too and we are all very familiar with it: relapse. I've heard about all these stages numerous times due to my education but it was neat to hear actual examples from the people for each stage. A lot of women decided to move from contemplation to action when they saw themselves in full length mirrors or in pictures. The leader gave us an assignment to do and review each day of the week. Answer the following questions:

1) Why did you relapse in the past?

I have relapsed in the past because I lost confidence in myself or simply thought that all the changes I needed to make were too difficult, time consuming, and/or expensive. I have a tendency to think my life is too busy for health improvements. I've had this reoccuring thought lately, "I'm completing my thesis in the next month and a half....why the hell am I working on weight loss right now?" I've also relapsed when I think I have everything under control and can just do it on my own. I'd then stop going to Weight Watchers and then slowly start gaining again since I stopped weighing myself weekly and journaling.

2) What action steps can you take to make sure you remain in the action stage and move into maintainence?

I need to make sure the treadmill is used almost every night each week. Last night was the first time ever when I was simply too tired to run. I was wiped out at 6pm. I just wanted to crawl in bed and lie down and I did go to bed early for once. I'm also doing a great job of replacing high calorie drinks. I primary drink my carbonated waters, sugar-free kool-aid, and have an occasional coffee. Eating out less has definitely helped me with my food choices and portion control. Homemade meals and leftovers also help a bunch. I also HAVE to keep journaling. I am so lax about it lately because exercise has boosted my confidence.

Here's a personal question...do you think that my choice of flavored carbonated water is a poor one? I've gotten some grief from a few people that think I should drink non-carbonated water. Apparrently the carbonation is bad for me? The water I drink has no sugar, calories, and caffiene. I love it because it gives me the fizz that I miss from soda. I've tried the flavored non-carbonated water from Hy-vee too. I bought a bottle by accident once since its stocked right by my carbonated water. It was awful. I don't think I could switch over.