In Celebration of School Starting...

...this is my first year not in school...since I began as a 3 year old in preschool. Seriously. I've been in school for 22 years and this is the very first time I have no classes this fall. Sigh. I love school. Wish I would have been hired for the fall since I am a teacher and all.

I digress...

During the week I track my food on eTools, provided free of charge with a monthly pass membership to Weight Watchers. A very helpful new tool is the weekly progress reports (this is what reminded me of school, progress reports/report cards). A fellow weight loss blogger I follow blogs about her progress report each week and I have decided to follow suite. So thank you J.D.

So let's chat about my progress from August 15th through August 21st

KC, you gained 1.4lbs.

Screw You Progress Report!! Who asked you anyway!?!

Really, it's okay. My goal is to maintain throughout summer and I'm actually down 1.2lbs since the beginning of summer.

A trend I've seen all summer is Saturday and Sunday. See that Daily Target line? I'm constantly below on the weekends. Naturally, that is when we BBQ with friends or have graduation parties or baptisms or weddings, etc., etc. That's fine. That's why I'm really good Monday-Friday. Then it balances out on the weekends and I end up maintaining. Thursday you can see I was a bit over. You see, I had gone out for a "Ladies Night" at a local restaurant and well, margaritas were only $5. But you know what? I tracked it didn't I?

I like the ActivityPointsPlus value box in the lower right hand corner. I earned 2 APPV for that week. Ahh right, that's when I took my youngest beagle for a run while I rollerbladed. Yeah, definitely slacked on the activity last week. Although, that's not to say I didn't move around. I definitely got normal activity in, just no extra workout. I see that I need to get in more workouts. Quite honestly, since it had been so hot throughout the month of July (like 115 degree kinda hot), I've slacked. It's too hot to exercise outside and it's too hot to workout inside. Even with the air conditioner on, it was very warm in my loft which is where I have the PS3 that had my workout games on it. Excuses. I know. And I suffered the consequence.

Moving on...

Tracking Healthy Checks - these are the Good Health Guidelines that I truly am not great at fulling. But now that I have the Progress Report to show me where I lack and exceed I've become better. The smiley face indicates that I've had the recommended daily intake and the check mark indicates that I've had at least one serving.

The first health check is water or any liquid that is non-alcoholic. I'm quite terrible at getting in liquids but have definitely been working on drinking more water. At least 4 out of 7 days I had at least or more than 48 oz which is recommended. I'll say I passed.
Next is dairy. I will usually drink one 8oz glass of Smart Balance Fat Free Milk which equals one serving of dairy. Or I will eat one serving of Greek yogurt which is one serving of dairy. Rarely will I do both in the same day. Clearly, only 2 days did I get at least one of those. Fail.
Fruits and Veggies! This is an easy one for me. It's easier in the beginning of the week when I have just replenished my fresh fruit supply. I can eat fruits and veggies all day. The recommendation is 5 servings of either 1/2 cup for fruit and veggies or 1 cup of leafy greens. 3 out of 7 I exceeds and the other 3 I had at least one serving but less than five servings. Pass.
Multivitamin. Definitely passed that one. Every evening before bed I take a prenatal vitamin. Not because I want babies, but because I know they are packed with lots of vitamins. My outrageously long and strong nails will prove it!
Healthy Oils - The healthy oils are those such as olive, safflower, sunflower, flaxseed and canola and it's recommended to get 2 teaspoons a day, unless you are a nursing mom, then you should get 3. This is hard for me to figure out if I get my intake or not. I don't use any oil other than extra virgin olive oil and I rarely use it. However, thanks to the Progress Report, I definitely try. At least two days I had one serving and two days I had at least two servings. A for effort.
Activity - Finally we track activity. At least 30 minutes is recommended. If I don't get in a regular routine workout, I consider cleaning the house or some kind of movement like that part of my "activity" for the day. Whereas, if I'm feeling like lazy bones I won't check that box. And actually, Saturday should be checked because we were downtown all day walking around. So I pass. I'm rarely sedentary.

Summer is coming to an end and while I've maintained all summer, I'm tired of losing and gaining the same 5lbs. On Monday at my weigh-in the scale read 130.2lbs. That's fine with me, but I've still 10.2lbs until goal and I'm pack on plan to start losing.

This week I'm focused on getting at least one serving of dairy every day and also getting at least 48 oz of water, everyday. Yesterday was day one on the new progress report and just a sneak peek...I hit my daily recommendations for everything. It's a good start to the week!