Prodigal blah blah blah....

I really appreciate all the well wishes and emails encouraging me to come back. I really wish I hadn't lost so much motivation. It turned out to be a lot more than just blogging. I slipped a bit here and there on my weight loss, then wound up completely jumping ship (literally) when I went for a trip to the lake with some friends the weekend before last. Beginning two days before that and extending the entire following week, I just didn't track. I made poor choices, I got ridiculously intoxicated on that Friday, I stopped working out altogether. My mood and sleep schedule both began to go to shit and my work in the lab started to suffer as well. I know a lot of that is caused by the lack of exercise. I've come to rely on the boost it gives me and I truly missed it when I fell out of the habit.

Until then, although the losses were coming slowly, I was seeing some pretty decent progress in the way clothes fit and the way I was feeling in terms of fitness. I was actually doing really well in getting in daily workouts on both EA Sports Active (30 minutes M, Tu and Th-Sa mornings) as well as my usual elliptical workouts and Wednesday yoga. I felt really good about the progress I made on EA Sports and while I still haven't done my comprehensive review, I can tell you it's coming and it's going to be really positive. My falling off the wagon caused me to miss my final 5 workouts that would have completed the 30-day challenge, but I've hopped back on the wagon as of last Saturday and restarted the 30-day challenge yesterday. This time, I'm determined to stick with it.

The last time I fell off the wagon was in October and that time, I stopped going to the gym, I stopped going to WW meetings and I stopped tracking. When I came back to my senses, I spent a week getting my butt in gear, then went back to my meeting on November 1st and found myself up one pound. It would have been a lot more if not for the determination I'd had the week prior to reverse the damage. Last Saturday, I found myself in a similar situation. I weighed in at +7.0 for the two weeks (missed the previous week while I was at the lake), which after coming in at +1.2 at the weigh-in before that was quit a punch to the gut. That's just what I needed to see too because I've been pretty militant with my tracking since then. Even Saturday, being my usual high-point indulgence day was fairly reserved.

I won't see where I stand for another week and a half since my WW site is closed on the 4th. That's probably for the best because it gives me a full 7 days extra to take off all I've gained and try to make some forward progress on the scale. I hope I react to this bad month like I did in November. After coming off the October slump, I got on a big roll of tracking, exercising and attending meetings with renewed vigor and those efforts showed up on the scale with big losses. I know I'm slowing down and that's ok, but it'd be really nice to see another 3-4 pound loss for a few weeks. I want to go sky diving while the weather is still nice, and with almost 30 to go now, that's no small task.

I think now that I'm back on the wagon and a new month is here, now is as good a time as any to get back to blogging. I'll make every effort to get back into the habit of daily posts for this month. I'm serious when I say I couldn't do this without yall and I think this past blogless month has proven that quite well. Thanks for being there for me, everyone.