Losing, Literally.

It's been just about a month that I'm back on Weight Watchers (WW).  In that time, I've lost nearly 7 lbs.  I feel good about it, really, I do.  I just feel that I probably could be losing more, given the fact that I have significantly amped up how much I move.  I was doing virtually nothing before.  

Let's talk about measuring achievements for a sec, here.  When I rejoined WW, they told us about a new product that they developed in conjunction with Phillips.  It's called the Active Link (AL).  I thought, what the heck?  Try the thing and see if it works.  The only thing that would have held me back was the cost.  AL has an initial cost of $39.99 and a $5.00 monthly charge thereafter.  It also only works in one computer, so they tell you to use it with the computer you're using most.  For me, that's my work computer.  The thing is magic really.  You have a choice of three places you can wear it:  on your belt or pocket, on your bra strap or on a chain (which is what I should have done, but we'll get to that in a moment).  I chose to wear it on my pants pocket; if I wasn't wearing pants on a given day, I kept it on my bra, but that is really not comfortable.  You only have to have it on and it will record your movements.  It's looking for up and down, side to side and anything else you do.  It really motivates you to move.  My job involves a lot of sitting, so for me, this is good.  I almost never get up from my chair to move if I'm not heading to the bathroom.  This made me aware I should be moving more day-to-day in addition to exercise.  So, I mostly wore it on my pants pocket.  To tell you the truth, I was constantly checking to see if it was there.  Constantly.  Until I didn't check.  When I left my office this past Friday, I know the AL was on my pocket.  I even checked to make sure it was tight.  I put on my coat, hat and scarf and headed home.  I don't know why, but I left it alone for the entire ride home.  I did not check it once, which as I've mentioned, and because I was becoming obsessive compulsive about the thing, is rare.  I began to walk home in the snowstorm.  It is normally a good ten minute walk from the subway to my apartment.  With the snow, it would be harder, because it was coming down and the inches were piling up.  I started trudging through the snow piles.  At one point, I stopped to take a picture, so my friends in sunny Florida could see what was going on.  I continued walking along my merry way and then for a sudden, I checked to see if the AL was in place.  This time, sadly, it was not.  I started to panic.  The one time I don't check for it, it's gone?  Don't even ask the curses I started spewing.  Thankfully, there weren't too many people out.  I took a second, and decided to re-trace my steps.  Honestly, what was I thinking.  I has no idea when I lost it, so what good would that do?  Really, all it did was add to my exercise for the day, which because I was being so diligent and sticking to my promise to myself, was at almost an hour already for the day.  Adding another ten or 15 minutes would be great.  But, I was still soooo pissed.  I headed back towards the train station.  The snow was really coming down now, and it was colder than a witches... you know.  I had my gloves off, so of course, my hands were freezing.  By the time I got back to the subway, I hadn't found it.  I decided to turn around and head home again.  Of course, I couldn't go home without calling Weight Watchers and telling them I lost it.  I thought they'd have a measure of sympathy, which they kind of did, but not enough to say, "Oh, we'll send you a new one."  I did not remember that they told us that the contract was really with Phillips and since they were closed for the weekend by that point. I had to wait till Monday to deal with it.  The woman at WW did put a stop on my account, so it wouldn't be charged, but only Phillips could fully cancel the thing.  I did get a slight chuckle out of the phone call when WW woman said, "Perhaps when the snow melts, you'll find it".  Okay, hon, right.

Now, as this ends up, I have to decide if I want to invest in another Active Link.  I really loved the little guy.  I don't want to run the risk of losing it again.  If I did decide to, I would definitely put it on a chain and never take it off.  The question is, can I stay motivated to keep on track with the exercise?  I think I am able to.  Stay with me and follow my progress.  I am still on track this week and I plan to do that next and the week after, etc.

The journey continues.