Feeling stronger every day

The scale forgave me this morning for the Bailey's Irish Cream I lapped up before bed last night. I am down to 157.9.  As I mentioned in Bucket List Weight Loss, I weigh in front of the TV with the Nintendo Wii.  It not only presents you (gently) with your daily weight and bodyfat percentage, but it also provides a graph showing your weight changes over the past few days.  I love seeing the steady downward trend!  It's a potent visual reminder that what I'm doing really is working.

The more reminders we receive, the more likely we are to continue the trend.  That's one of the reasons daily weighing is so crucial.  When we don't actually see the numbers, it's easy for us to coast along in denial.  The scale tells the truth. So does the Wii graph.  So does the Wii's little animated voice that says either "That's great!" or "That's overweight."

If you've ever lost a lot of weight, you know how fun it is to receive the comments from people.  That's good reinforcing feedback too.  Seeing, hearing and feeling our weight loss successes all reinforce the good feelings we have about ourselves.  They say that if you hear something enough times, you'll eventually start to believe it.  That's how it is with compliments about your weight loss.  When enough people say to you,  "Gosh, you're looking great!" or "Wow, you're so skinny," you'll eventually start to believe it.  You'll start FEELING and ACTING like a thin person....eating like a thin person, and making the same dietary and activity choices as a thin person.  As they say, success breeds success.

Along the way--while you're waiting for those compliments to start coming--go ahead and treat yourself to something that will make you feel good about yourself NOW.

I got my haircut today, and I feel like a new person.  Other suggestions:  a manicure and/or pedicure, a new makeup product, a piece of jewelry that's different from the style you usually wear.  Give yourself a facial.  If you can afford one, hire a personal trainer.  Do things you know your inner thin person would likely do. 

Tomorrow I'll probably be back up, due to the leftover turkey dressing I had for dinner.  A double no-no for me, as I try to avoid bread (particularly bread soaked in butter and turkey grease!) and salty stuff.  However, I did work out this morning, and I did take the dogs for a couple very energetic walks.  One of them is snoring in her crate behind me right now.  I guess I tired her out.  Maybe  that's why my eyes are going closed right now too.  Time for bed!