I have followed Weight Watchers PointsPlus Program for the last week. I ate tons of fruits and veggies, but I’ll also admit I had some processed foods as well. I got in plenty of exercise, including three different Zumba classes.

How did I fare?

I weighed in on January 9, 2011, at 360.7, which is 1.5 pounds less than last Sunday! Woo hoo!

January 9, 2011
Last Week’s Weight: 362.2
Today’s Weight: 360.7
Change from All-Time High: 42.1 pounds
Change from Last Week: -1.5 pounds

I am also going to take a few body measurements so I can report on those changes as they occur as well.

Chest: 53 1/2″
Stomach: 62 1/4″
Bicep: 17″

It is a little jarring to realize that my stomach is wider around than some people are tall. That is a truly honest measurement, because I purposefully “let it out.” I didn’t suck it in like I do most of the time. I can’t wait until it is smaller around than 5 feet. I probably won’t record my inches every weigh-in, but I definitely want a record of them so I can see them change.

Regardless, I am happy today, because I weigh less today than I did on January 2nd!

I am dubbing January 9th’s weigh-in a Professor Trelawney Weigh-in!

Why Professor Trelawney? Well let me explain.

I’m a HUGE Harry Potter geek. Seriously, absolutely, completely love the entire series. One of my probably unattainable goals in life is to be the next J.K. Rowling. No, I don’t want to be a blonde Scottish woman, but I do want to have created an elaborate, magical world with in-depth rules.

In Harry Potter, there is a divination teacher named Professor Trelawney. She is the direct descendant of a famous seer, but sadly, Professor Trelawney’s skills in the area of divination are quite limited. She just isn’t very good. She’s only made a tiny handful of true predictions, and she goes into a trance when she made those, so she doesn’t even remember them.

Just the same, she reads tea leaves, keeps detailed dream journals, and looks into crystal balls like it’s no one’s business. It’s even her career! So even though it does her no good whatsoever, she is always consulting her various mediums to see how the future is going.

I’m equating crystal balls with getting on the scale every day. I’ve done it for the majority of my “dieting” life. I’m always trying to see the future of my weight loss efforts, even just one day in. This week, I didn’t. Here’s the difference it made.

1.5 pounds of weight loss and a much better attitude.

In the past, I’ve weighed daily, sometimes multiple times a day, and seen my weight fluctuate. When you see your weight change sometimes five or six pounds in a single day, a loss of 1.5 pounds in a week seems worthless. But you know what 1.5 pounds every week means? It means that in a year, I’ll weigh 78 pounds less. That’s amazing. But if I weigh every day, then I’ll get discouraged, and I’ll just quit. Because while it’s exciting to see the scale drop eight pounds suddenly, it is very discouraging to watch the scale leap eight pounds when you know you did everything right.

For me, that needless self-inflicted discouragement can lead me to jump off program and my weight will keep going up.

For the rest of my life, unless a doctor orders me to do so otherwise, I am never going to weigh in every day.

I am going to set a weekly weight loss goal of three pounds for next week. I’m still aiming for 350 by my first February weigh-in, and while that may be tough, I’m going to keep shooting for it. Three pounds is a tough goal but it’s not impossible. And you know what? Even if I don’t lose but one pound next week, I’m still going to celebrate.

Oh, and in between shooting the video and writing this blog post, I ran out and bought my lottery tickets for weight loss. For every pound I lose, I buy a $1 scratcher. I won a free ticket, but that free ticket was a loser, so I came out with no extra Vegas money this week.

And as always, my video blog for the week.

What weight loss plans do you have for the next week?

P.S. – More posts in my gym etiquette series coming soon!

Related Posts:

• A Return to Vlogging Weigh-In
• Hungry Monster Weigh-In
• A Warp Zone Weigh-In