I need to be more like SCOTCHGUARD!

Scotchgard rocks! For those of you not familiar, Scotchgard works as a protector for various fabric surfaces. You spray it on clothes or furniture, and spills basically bead up and roll right off the surface. When I experience rough weight loss weeks (like last week), I wish I possessed a product, like Scotchgard, to spray on so the guilt and remorse from making mistakes rolls right off me!

So, after last Saturday's Weight Watchers meeting, I decided to use the information I obtained to create my own Scotchgard approach to learn from my mistakes. Again, the meeting reverberated the same theme...LEARN FROM EXPERIENCE. If I plan to "Scotchgard" the remainder of my weight loss endeavor, I must take heed and LEARN!

From my current WW stint, I discovered many challenges sometimes stand in the way of my weight loss goals:

• Feeling guilty about falling of track- Instead of feeling guilty, weight watchers suggests that I learn from my uh-oh's and oh no's . I like to do what I call turning my uh-ohs and oh-no's into yo go's...as in YO GO GIRL! Sometimes unplanned errands after work without back-up snacks spells trouble. Trouble meaning, I find my self in the convenient store with a bag of Hot Fries beckoning me. And on occasion, my will power falters and the Hot Fries win an all expense paid trip to my stomach. But rather than feel guilty about eating a bag of Hot Fries (uh no!), I learned...leave the Hot Fries from whence they came, OR I choose a healthier snack like natural mixed nuts (YO GO!)
  
  
  
• Not making time to look back and & forward: From past experiences I learned that fad diets failed me! You name it, I tried it: 3 Day Diet, The Cabbage Soup Diet, Heart Surgery Patient Diet, South Beach Diet, Atkins, (briefly), Diet Pills/Vitamin B Shot, Slim Fast, 7 Day Diet, etc. In the past I required instant gratification, so I chose to lose weight via fad diets. Yeah, the diets worked. I lost weight...temporarily. From my current WW participation, I realized, I never learned any long lasting habits to sustain and maintain weight loss. I now call those fad diets shortcuts to a quick fix.
  
  
• My all or nothing attitude: My all or nothing attitude still remains another one of my big challenges. My leader suggested that I need to find some balance to combat my attitude. Lately, my slip up seem to result from a lack of planning and when I slip-up my frame of thought proposes that I throw in the towel and give up. Instead of giving up, I just tell myself turn the uh-ohs into a YOU GO by turning the next meal into a second chance to get it right.

My "Scotchgard Strategies"

• Reflection: I usually take time to reflect on what works! As some of you know I refer to my weight loss reflections as glows and grows. I find reflection extremely important on my more successful weeks. On weeks when I own the scale, I make a list of strategies that I think contributed to my big loss for that week. When bad weeks crop up, I refer to my list of strategies to guide myself back in the right direction.
  
  
• Making realistic changes: I often ask myself, "Can I live with the lifestyle changes I make...for the rest of my life?" On occasion, I impose unrealistic changes, like restricting myself from certain foods, which result in me temporarily jumping ship and struggling. As soon as I restrict myself from a specific food, for example pizza, I want nothing but to wrap my mouth around a cheesy piping hot pizza. And pretty soon I find myself face down, a$$ up at the nearest pizza buffet. WW teaches me that I can eat my favorite foods but in moderation.
  
  
• View Uh-Ohs and Oh-No's as feedback: If I had to offer a new WW member one nugget of advice, based on my personal experience, I would let them know the importance of weighing in and attending the meetings weekly. Every time I struggle through a crummy week, I always threaten to use my no weigh in pass. Even though I threaten to use my pass, I never do...I weigh every week no matter what! Weighing in weekly gives me a gauge for how the following week unfolds. So when I gain, I work harder. In addition, attending the meetings always gives me the motivation & momentum I need to make it through the next week.

So, BAM... My "Scotchgard Strategies!" Whenever I feel myself slipping and sliding into another  one of my failure funks, I plan to revisit My "Scotchgard Strategies" in hopes that the guilt and remorse beads up and rolls off like Scotchgard baby! 


That's me letting the guilt bead up and roll off. In this pic I am really "Shakin' the Haters Off!"...lol. Oh by the way I lost .4 last week.