16 Weeks

Good afternoon everyone! Sorry that I didn't post earlier, but it's been a hectic day so far for me, what with work and having to run errands during my lunch break.

I made it to my Body Jam class last night and I was pleasantly surprised by how much more manageable it was the third time around. Body Jam is a dance workout offered at Gold's Gym, which consists of a choreographed hip-hop/ salsa dance routine. Mentally, it's much harder than Zumba because you actually have to remember a sequence of steps. My mom nearly died laughing when I told her I'd joined a dance class, because let's just say I'm not the most coordinated person ever... Anyway, last week, I felt like I was frantically trying to keep up with the steps and always going in the wrong direction :) Yesterday, I was able to keep up much better, and when I did fall behind, I'd wait an extra beat and get right in again. In fact, I was concentrating so hard on my moves that I nearly ran over this very petite girl in my class (she was not thrilled). Regardless, it was a fun workout.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this in a previous post, but last week marked my 16th week doing Weight Watchers (WW), which is a milestone event (you even get a charm). WW says that once a member has reached 16 weeks, he or she is beginning to incorporate WW as a lifestyle, not just a diet. I hope that's true. In some ways, I feel like my attitude towards WW has changed since I began this program. My intense desire to lose weight has slowly been replaced with a more moderate urge to lead a healthy lifestyle by exercising more frequently and eating better. This shift has undoubtedly caused my weight loss to slow down, since I occasionally allow myself to overeat. At the same time, I feel like I have reached a place where I can live like this for the rest of my life.

It's not always easy striking a balance between weight loss fanaticism and weight loss complacency, but I'm going to try anyway. The secret, I believe, is exercising frequently and eating within my points...which coincidentally is the WW program ;)