one day at a time

that's how i'm taking this whole "weight watchers" thing right now: focusing on each day as a separate entity, making smart decisions, going to the gym bright and early when i'd rather beat the living crap out of my alarm clock, ... except for today. today i'm choosing to give myself a break. actually, my body is demanding that i give myself a break. now, this may have something to do with one, or some combination of, the following: (1) i drank my face off last night (as a self-proclaimed light weight, this loosely translates to a bottle of wine and a vodka redbull or 2), (2) i chain smoked 1/2 a pack of cigarettes (this, in turn, may have something do with the fact that my current crush is a part-time chimney - funny how these things work, isn't it?), (3) i only got 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep (and why yes, this may also have something to do with my crush du jour), and/or (4) i'm in the midst of re-watching the entire 1st season of sex and the city (episode 9 here i come!) but then again, maybe my body is just too spent from the hour-long yoga class i went to yesterday. good luck, sherlock - some mysteries are never meant to be solved.

excuse me, for i digress.

for today's post is not about the amazingly awesome, super-great night i had last night, but rather, about the little decisions i made during the day that allowed last night to happen. allow me to explain. yesterday's weigh in was downright depressing - up 1.5 lbs after being 100% on track all week. i consumed minimal alcohol (no more than 1/2 a pitcher), exercised 4 days of 7 (including 1 weight training session), only ate about 1/2 of my activity points, and even had 10 flex points left over when all was said and done. i've never not had a loss when i've followed the program so closely before. and i was so looking forward to a loss - i was sure that this week i was going to make it to the 5 lb mark. but alas, set backs happen, and as much as i wanted to drown my sorrows in a pint of ice cream at 7 am, i didn't. nor did i punish myself by staying in at night. after all, my theme for the season is balance. so i made decisions that allowed to accomplish just this: i ate well all day (below daily points and mostly core foods), i went to the yoga class i had been pushing off, i took my dog for a 1 hour walk, and i planned my night (what i was going to drink, eat, etc.). and it worked! i had a fabulous night (have i mentioned this already?) and was able to stay well under my points allowance (still have about 15 flex points left for the rest of the week). by forgiving myself and moving forward i was able to prevent that downwards, binge-eating spiral that mini setbacks, such as yesterday's scale mishap, have been known to throw me into in the past. me: 1 vs. emotional eating: 0.

i'm already applying this lesson to today's conundrum: to work our or not to work out. 6 months ago i would have been frustrated with myself for being too hungover and weak-lunged to go to the gym (i'm not a true smoker, but one of those poser, social-smokers true smokers hate - so i don't fully inhale every time, so sue me!) but not now, not today. my eating is on track, and that alone is practically a miracle after a night of heaving drinking. so i'm going to let today's workout go and choose to focus on the other great things i'm doing for my body instead.