I somehow managed to lose 5-7 pounds in January and February. Thanks to WW!! But….

Come Mid-February? I hit a plateau. Nothing was working. NOTHING. Working out more? Didn’t work. Eating a little less by barely using any flex points??? NOT WORKING.

So, before I went to Washington DC I quit Weight Watchers. I have exercised much more since then. I have been eating when I am hungryand I’m not longer trying to eat UP to the 21 points I was alotted.

Do you know what else?? I cannot for the life of me make WW work for me. I looked back at a lot of my food logs.  Yes, I was getting a lot of filling fiber…But I was eating WAY TOO MANY FREAKING CARBS. It seems that a lot of protein sources like cheese and meat products weregiven way too many points!! Things full of fiber are supposed to be good for you, but I just feel like my body wasn’t getting the nutrients I needed. I constantly felt hungry. I wasn’t eating ENOUGH most of the time. I think my body went into starvation mode or something. I suddenly started craving all the things I wasn’t ALLOWED TO HAVE.

I don’t know. I know WW is all about willpower and what-not, but it just didn’t work for me.

I’ve been off of WW now for two weeks. And for the last two weekends, I haven’t been especially careful on my diet, but I’ve been exercising. Courtney kept me walking (and on a short hash run!) when I was in DC and even though I had started coming with a coldfor the past two weeks, I kept carefully trucking through my exercising and didn’t get the full fledged flu I was afraid I would get.

The best part? My skinny jeans? Which I have been FITTING IN….but just barely…. Fit better today than they have since I bought them in January. They still aren’t perfect, but I’m going to wear them this weekend when we go up to celebrate St.Patty’s day. Wearing jeans that are a teeny tiny bit tight? Will remind me not to overdo the beer and appetizer intake on Saturday.

I am so glad to finally be confident in myself again. SO FREAKING HAPPY! Even if I’m not yet at my goal weight. I’m 5′4″ and I’m at 144 pounds (and a few thanks to PMS, but that number will go back down by tomorrow!).

Ah…. *Sigh of relief….*

Every time I see this video clip, I die laughing. I love Seth Meyers!

Idea stolen from Whoorl.

Since I’m not working…and Dan is paying the bills at this time (yes, I ADMIT IT. my partner is paying the bills!)…It’s time take a time out from shopping. The problem about finding a job right now? Is that I will have to quit within just a few months. It’s not worth it. Yes, every little bit would help, but…yeah. If the economy was better, I’d jump at a retail job or something. But I’m NOT going to apply to a company, take a month to get hired in, have them spend a fortune training me, then bailing out on them come September. For the next year and a half, it will not make sense for me to work.  So student loans will help us out, etc. I hate living on student loan funds, but we’re mostly going to save the excess student loan funds that come in. Because we don’t know what will happen next!

Anyway, I love shopping. So this challenge is HARD HARD HARD. I’m not Catholic, but never did think of anything to give up for Lent. Maybe for the rest of Lent, I’ll give up shopping and by the time Lent is over, my habit will have been killed a  bit and I’ll have enough energy to NOT spend anything for 99.9% of the summer.

Here’s what I have been eyeing the last month or so but am NOT buying (not that I could afford them right now anyway…so it’s my wishlist for this time….lol….):

Old Navy Cotton Twill Box Pleat Skirt, Size 6: $24.50

Nine West Snowball, Size 7 @ Zappos: $78.95

CHI Limited Edition Pink Flat Iron @ Amazon: $60 (only 5 left in stock…sigh…)

Lancome Virtuose: $23.50

and last but not LEAST……I am dying for these walking shoes….because I’m curious if they work:

Reebok Easy Tone Outside Walking Shoes – Size 7.5: $109.99