I've been so busy lately I have found myself relaxing a bit too much on the things that have given me success in losing my weight and maintaining it. Last night I even found myself nervously munching away with those little marshmallows and pretzels until I was so stuffed I felt I couldn't put another bite in. I know, call it what it is...So, today I made a list of the things I have been doing before I ran out the door this morning before I could lose my thoughts so I could type these in latter. I am at the DANGEROUS part of a diet where one makes it or loses it for permanent weight loss. This is where those old habits start to creep back in after the weight is off and one is feeling good about ones weight and body and one lets their guard down. I think after I wrote my list down, I realized I was beginning to let my guard down a little. Since this can and does happen to a lot of us, I decided to share my list with everyone in hopes that if you see yourself in here, you will take action to become more diligent and get back to your program as quickly as possible. Here's what I saw myself not doing:

1.) making a recipe and not breaking it down to find the caloric value of it

2.) not planning my meals in the morning or at night, but putting then down after I eat or as I go

3.) Not sticking to my planned menus when I did set one, but altering them way to often and too much and going over calories way too often as a result

4.) Worrying about things I have no control of. In a way thid effects my diet big time because the more anxiety I have the more likely I am to stress eat. I have done just that. What for ? The things I am stressing about are out of my control !!!!!

5.) not getting enough sleep

6.) not taking enough time to relax and blog

7.) BINGING, enough said !

8.) getting up in the middle of the night to eat something.

9.) not writing down all the food I have eaten when I eat it and expect to remember it later
.This goes along with pre-planning my food to begin with.

10.) not putting in enough protein in my snacks. Nadine caught me on this one. My GYN told me to make sure as did my dietitian I had protein 5x a day. This is vital for losing weight as for maintaining blood sugar levels.

11.) get a regular exercise time and stick with it if possible.

There's my list. I must eliminate some an improve on others to have any hope at keeping this weight off. Some 23 years ago I lost my weight but never kept it off. This is where I failed that time. I am older and wiser now. I have more knowledge, better food, and hopefully more motivation now to succeed where I failed last time. This is a big week for me, not because of my daughter's wedding, but because of my state of mind concerning my diet. I must conquer my demons and be able to push past this. I believe in myself this time. I have a lot more support to this time I didn't back then. I feel my future is brighter than it was back twenty some odd years ago thanks to you all. Through out these next months you probably will be reading about some of how I will be conquering my demons here. I apparently have a few more dragons to slay before I am finished.
Today I got my hair colored ! I can see why women get addicted to doing this now ! My hubby really likes it. Looks like I may eat my words and keep doing this. Hubby says it makes me look like I'm in my 40's instead of the 50's. I don't have a lot of face wrinkles yet, so coloring my hair does add age to my appearance from what I've been getting. So far the people who have seen me seem to think between the weight loss and hair color, I look younger. Gee, if I knew losing weight would fool this many people I would have done this years ago !
I also got to do my first weight work out at my gym today. There are only four pieces of equipment I am allowed to use, plus the treadmill. It sure was fun the get to PUMP IRON ! OK< sqqeekk iron in my case. I had to use them with 10 pound weights and I'm sure the LA Fitness person helping me thought I was a weakling, but...hey, I was happy, happy, happy, to get to do them. I don't care much for the sitting leg press because it still kind of hurts a little in my back area. My legs don't hurt, it's my lumbar area that hurts. Then I finished my workout on the treadmill, but I walked slower than I usually do since I was getting tired. I was told to do all of these together since the weight work out is not very strenuous. Someday when I get a full weight work out, then I can spend a whole sessions just doing weights and break down my work outs this way.
Long blog since I haven't blog much substance lately. Will catch up on everyones blogs tomorrow since I will be home in the afternoon. Talk to you all then. Bye now.