Week Two ... in control.

I've lost a total of 6.4lbs since I started Weight Watchers two weeks ago! That earned me my first 5lb gold star at the meeting, and bragging rights to the group. I feel good about that loss -- really, really good. Of course, I've got too much weight to lose for anyone to really notice that loss on my body for right now, but I can feel my body changing even if the world can't see it yet.

A great resource for me this week has been the Weight Watchers "100+ to Lose" message board. The people on that board are such an inspiration, and I've learned from them that it's important to eat "healthy" not just "low-fat/calorie." They also give great suggestions on how to accomplish that -- by eating foods high in fiber and making sure you get your daily servings of fruits, veggies, calcium, water, and oil into your diet.

So tonight, to celebrate my success after the meeting, I took a trip to the grocery store all by my lonesome to troll the aisles. I looked at all the ingredients, nutritional facts and dietary information -- I've got a million of those low-calorie snacks in my pantry, but I realized this week that I don't have a lot of variety in the "real" foods that I eat. So I chose a lot of whole grain side items for dinner (brown rice, wheat pasta, etc) and decided to add some dairy variety as well (like yogurt, skim chocolate milk, Laughing Cow cheese, etc). Some of the stuff, I've never eaten before ... some are old staples that I've just gotten out of the habit of including in my diet.

So of course, the grocery store trip took forever -- and I could have never done that with my two kids in tow -- but I came out feeling really good about the variety of choices I've added to our pantry for this weekend and next week, and I'm looking forward to trying out some of the new items I bought.

All in all, I feel like I'm much more in control. I also feel really encouraged by my weight loss. My mini-goal was to lose 6lbs this month, and I've already achieved that half-way through the month! Of course, I'd like to lose 6lbs EVERY month this year ... but I have to remember that my journey has to be about celebrating the little victories in the present, and not constantly looking to the future at the seemingly unattainable goal.

Baby steps, Heather, baby steps.