Success & Disappointment

So I weighed in Monday, and the scale read 236.  The first thing I felt was disappointment, and then I felt silly.  I lost two pounds in a week!  That's good!  I just had my heart set on 235.  I had also lost a couple of inches overall.  Today I weighed in at 234.  Huzzah!  That's 9 pounds since Thanksgiving!  I'm getting into a phase where I'm not eating dinner, mostly because it doesn't feel needed when I get home and then shortly thereafter go to bed.  The result is a 1200-1300 calorie day.  This might change week to week.

A nice side benefit to being dedicated to this plan is that occasionally my boyfriend will drop down and do some shirtless push-ups.  Hell yeah.  Hey, men have been objectifying me since puberty.  It's my turn.  He got up to 20 push-ups in one set.  That's 20 more than I can do, I'm sure.  Maybe I'll work on that at some point.

For now I'm getting my steps in, tracking my food intake, and trying not to go crazy on the weekends.  Last week we earned upwards of $90 in additional fun budget.  This was due to having a perfect week ($50), a bonus for that perfect week ($10), and bonuses for keeping pounds and inches off from one week to the next.  Winning!

Still feeling really motivated, if still a bit prone to want to snack on something salty.  Onward!

Struggles

So, the blogs will be less frequent because five a week just isn't going to happen, but I feel like I have enough content from the week to talk about at this point.  Sticking with the plan is hard (duh, said anyone who's ever tried).  I had some days where I was constantly thinking about the food I wasn't eating.  I had another day where I ate half a bag of chips.  Why?  Because it was there.  Because I smelled it.  Because I'm a compulsive eater.

I played hooky from work on Tuesday (ate as planned, though) and work ran into Zumba today, so no Zumba at all for the week, but my steps have been good.  At least I went to my Overeaters Anonymous meeting, and I'm glad I did.  It feels really good to talk to people who experience the same feelings and impulses you do in order to convince yourself that no, you're not crazy and yes, there are others going through what you are so you don't have to go it alone.  We talked about the upcoming holidays and I feel less scared about the temptation.  I asked when this would get easier, and one of the leaders, who was also an alcoholic, suggested to think of it like being abstinent from drugs or alcohol -- 28 day rehab, and then the fog will lift.  So if I count my Wednesday chip binge, the fog will lift after January 3rd barring any further binges.  I just have to avoid the salty, crunchy stuff.  It is my crack.

Besides Wednesday, I've been staying in my calorie goal of 1500-1600.  Today I only had 1200.  I just didn't feel hungry, probably because I feel bad about my Wednesday night binge.  I lost 5 pounds last week, and I'm hoping for 3this week.  It's a LARP weekend so maybe with all of the walking around, I stand a chance.  We shall see!

Rewards System

So, I promised I would elaborate on our rewards system.  We talked about it at length and came up with something that worked for us.  Financially, we were shaky about whether or not we could swing this, but it's important that we follow through or we might risk feeling de-motivated over time.  That being said, here are the rules my boyfriend and I agreed upon:

$5/day if both work out for half an hour
$5/week for both taking measurements and pictures on Monday
$5/week for both not drinking soda at all between Monday & Friday
$5/week for both not paying for food/snacks out between Monday & Friday
$1/day for both walking 10,000 a day
$5/week for both counting all calories between Monday & Friday

If we have a perfect week, we should earn $10/day or $50 total fun budget for the week.  That money is banked and only cashed in when we reach certain weight goals together.

If my boyfriend weighs 270, and I weigh 230 we splurge for the Fitbit Aria Scale.

If my boyfriend weighs 260 and I weigh 222, we get a "spa day", including but not limited to a couple's massage, manicures and pedicures (although he hates the sound filing nails makes).

If my boyfriend weighs 250 and I weigh 214, we splurge on new workout wardrobe (right now we're just pulling together odds and ends).

If my boyfriend weighs 240 and I weigh 206, we spend a day out in Fingerlakes wine country with a bed & breakfast stay.

If my boyfriend weighs 230 and I weigh 198, we really spurge on a spa day at the local casino resort.

We haven't yet figured out a suitable reward for 220/190.  Any suggestions?

If my boyfriend weighs 210 and I weigh 198, we go skydiving!  How exciting!

If my boyfriend weighs 200 and I weigh 174, we figure it'll be time to refresh the workout wardrobe again.

Finally, our goal weight: 190 for my boyfriend, 170 for me.  We plan to completely refresh our wardrobe by adding up all of the money we earned up to that point so, say it takes a year for the sake of simplicity, and we are basically perfect for that entire time.  That would be a total of $2600, or $1300 each to go shopping with.

Any money left over from our rewards stays in the fun budget for later use.  We never use the fun budget unless it's something for both of us that we both agreed on.

So that's the plan so far.  We'll probably adjust and reassess as we go, but so far this is what we think will work for us.