Last Day! C'est finis!

That's right boys and girls. Today is day 30 of my 30 day challenge. Wow what a boon this has been! Such a simple thing. Such a stupid thing. Why did it work? Who knows? Am I happy it did? Hell yes!

I read a Weight Watcher article about setting goals. I thought about it, and I did just that. They might be a multi billion quatrillion dollar business, but they do know their stuff.

I knew enough to make it reasonable, that's why I chose 30 days. I knew enough to not make it overwhelming, so I chose 3 things. I know my weakness, so I made that one of the things.

You're wondering what my weakness is? It's telling myself no. I'm not good at it. Not good at all. If I want it, I have it. Oh, I'll half-heartedly argue with myself. Now Debby, you know you don't REALLY want that bag of potato chips. You know you should have an apple. Apple my ass! If I want potato chips an apple certainly is NOT going to help!

I had a WW leader once that said, and I do quote here, "You have to want the pickle more than the potato chips." Yes, she was specifically talking to me. I looked at her like she was from another planet! I will never ever ever want a pickle instead of potato chips. They're not the same thing. I had an 'aha' moment a few years ago. A real head slapping, OMG, epiphany. She didn't mean I had to want the taste of the pickle over the taste of the potato chips, she meant I had to want to eat the pickle, eat what is better for me, a better choice, than to choose the potato chips! DOH! It took me about 20 years to figure that one out!

OK, so now let's apply that to the challenge. Bet you thought I forgot where I was going with this didn't you????? Nope, I didn't. If, every single time I want something, I give in to myself, I'll never learn to 'want the pickle'. I have to learn what it is to face a craving and defeat it. I have to do it over and over. Eventually, when the craving comes, I'll be able to 'want the pickle'.

I have never been able to fight myself when I really wanted something to eat. Never. I've been known to drive 25 miles to get a Whopper. When Taco Bell first opened, we didn't have one in our town. Next town over did! I have gotten up out of bed, dressed, gone to the store in the middle of the night for a candy bar. I have missed important parts of movies to get popcorn that when I went in I said I'd not have. Yep, when the feeling comes over me that I want something, an even stronger feeling comes over me letting me have it. This summer, for the very first time ever, I fought a craving. Read about it here if you'd like. I almost fainted! I hadn't done it since, obviously, as I gained 26.2 pounds this summer!

So my challenge had to include something about telling myself NO. Hence the 'Stay OP 6 days a week' part. I don't use my flex points during the week. I take one day each week and eat what I want. It's always been called my 'no rules day'. It works for me. Sometimes. In the past, that 1 no rules day often became 2 or 3 as, like I've said, I have a problem saying no to the princess! That's why my challenge said 6 days a week and not a full 30 days. If I could do this, it would be monumental. There's no way in 30 days I'm not going to want something that I can't have. If I can tell myself no, wow, what a boon!

There were 3 occasions in the past 30 days that I really, really, really, wanted something. The only thing that kept me from having it was my challenge to myself. That was it. Not knowing that I didn't want to gain more weight. Not knowing how hard it is on my psyche to have to lose weight again I've already lost. Not knowing that I really want to reach my goal. Nope, none of that. It was just that I wanted a clean 30 day record! Cowabunga dude! Have I made a discovery or what?????

My exercise routine was this.

Yep, that's right. I did nothing! I needed to incorporate exercise into my life, so that became number 2 on my challenge. I should have gone for baby steps, but I'm glad I didn't. I jumped right in with both feet so to speak. My challenge was to exercise a minimum of 5 days a week for at least 30 minutes a day. Man oh man did I do that. I didn't want to, but I did! Usually exceeding the amount required too!

Planning is the key to good weight loss I think. Write it down. Plain and simple. I can't wait until I'm hungry and then decide what to eat. That's a disaster waiting to happen. For me to succeed, I need to plan ahead. I need to plan my food for the day before I take my first bite. So, the 3rd thing on my list was to track my food. Plan, journal, whatever you call it. I can't tell you how many times that has helped me. I'm starving, what can I eat? Oh let me just see what I planned and have something off the list. Oh ya baby. Sometimes I'm so smart I amaze myself!

So, today is the last day of my challenge. I will have NO problem making it through the rest of tonight for sure. It's been a flying success in every way. For the full 30 days I accomplished all 3 of my goals. Wow do I feel great about myself!!! I mean really, really, really proud!

I'll be working tonight on the next one for sure. Look for the update tomorrow.