Great in 8!

I love food! I love cooking, baking, barbecuing, crock-potting, steaming, sauteing ... good food. Or just reading through my cookbooks and dreaming about cooking, baking, barbecuing, crock-potting, steaming, sauteing ... good food.

I am slightly obsessed with it in fact. I am usually either thinking about making and eating something delicious, or thinking about how I can resist eating something delicious. Sometimes I even think that I can make something delicious, and then resist eating it. :) Since I seem to have a hard time resisting, I have always struggled with my weight.

Weight Watchers and exercise worked for me a few years ago, and I thougtht I had figured out the balance... (enough exercise and appropriate resisting)... Then I got a full time teaching job and all of the sudden my exerciseing became a little sparatic. Then I got married. Then Flint started working evenings, and it wasn't uncommon for us to eat dinner at 9:00-9:30 at night. By the time I got pregnant I am afraid that my sparatic exercise rutines had dissapeared. Then I had a baby (enough said). Finally, I bacame a ravanous nursing mother at about the same time "the holidays" hit.

Needless to say, by the time January came around, I needed to make some drastic changes. When I found out that the Relief Society was sponsoring a "Feel Great in 8" competition, I was excited to participate. Those of you that know me best, know that I am slightly competitive. It was just what I needed!

We earn points by keeping track of several "good choices", and deduct points for "bad choices". The great thing about it is, it's more than just a weight loss program. It is aimed at improving health (rewarding good foods, exercise, water drinking, and weight loss), spirituality (rewarding daily scripture study, and personal prayer) and service (rewarding the completion of assigned tasks). About 50 sisters in the ward signed up to participate; and teams of 4 are keeping track of points to see who can score the greatest improvements.


Here is what the form looks like.

Since I realize it is too small to read, here are the three sections:

First, the "Good Food List".
We can earn up to 10 points a day by eating food from this list.

Second, the "Activity" points

and "Daily Challenge" points.

(The "Daily Challenges" change each week.)

Notice how high the scripture reading and exercise points are.
Notice the no eating after 8:00 p.m. points!

Finally, the "Bad Food List".

We keep track of our individual points during the week and then report the total to our team captain. (This was extra motivation for me, since I let down my team if I cheat or get lazy.)
The truth is, I could find the loop holes that would let me eat poorly and still get the maximum number of points, but I have to remind myself when I start to rationalize bad food choices that I am trying to loose weight. ("Butter is not on the bad food list!", or "Since portion size doesn't count...")

I am proud to say that after the first 6 weeks, I had lost 16 lbs. and was the highest individual score. (Did I say I was competitive?) It has been a wonderful way for me to break old habits and reintroduce good habits. I make "dinner" at 2:00 or 3:00 now so that we can eat before Flint goes out on appointments. (No more 9:00 meals!) I haven't missed a single day of scripture reading! I even joined a gym and have started exercising again (I'm debating one of those "tracking" page elements to keep me motivated). I even made it through Valentine's Day without eating any Valentine's candy!

I admit, I was weak and had 4 "Bad food" items last week, (I did throw a baby shower with delicious food.) but I really think that I am on the right track, and plan to stay on that track, even after the 8 weeks end.

If I could somehow get rid of this food obsession I would really be in good shape!