What a difference a week makes

This past weekend I found myself in a real slump. I spent two days feeling sorry for myself. I was thinking at the time that just a week earlier I was on cloud nine. I felt fantastic and full of hope. A week later, I felt like never leaving the house again. Now, almost another week later, I'm feeling great again. I've had ups and downs throughout this entire year, but this time seems particularly difficult.

It hasn't been easy, but I've been determined since Monday to turn things around. I've had four pretty good days. No, they haven't been perfect. But my emotions have been in check and the irrational part of my brain has taken over only briefly a couple of times this week.

One problem area is eating. As you know, I use the Weight Watchers points system to track what I'm eating. I haven't tracked in more than a week. I haven't eaten terribly, but it hasn't been good ... a lot of meals out and far more desserts in the past week than I've had in the entire year. I'm not kidding!

I went into the holiday season knowing that I needed to manage my expectations. That means I knew I'd probably overdo it from time to time and that my rate of weight loss probably wouldn't be high. My main goal has been to lose a few pounds, but enjoy myself. I think I'm doing that. I guess I'll find out for sure when I weigh-in Friday morning. I'm not sure what to expect. I've weighed every morning this week and the results have been wildly different -- varying by several pounds. I just hope I haven't gained.

Anyway, I'm going to try not to obsess about it tonight. Nothing I can do about it now. Speaking of obsessions, this entire week has been about letting go of an obsession. I'm still not ready to talk about it, but I'm doing OK. Today's rating: 6 -- not quite as good as Tuesday and Wednesday, but not bad and I feel I'm making progress.

Finally, I want to end this day thinking about what a good mood I've been in this week. Sometimes I have to fake it a little, but before I know it, I really do feel good. I have a work holiday party to go to Friday night, so I'm desperately hoping my good mood sticks around for at least one more day. I skipped it last year because I didn't want to go downtown and have to worry about walking and parking and socializing. Now, as most of you probably already know, I've fallen in love with downtown. I enjoy meeting new people. And I can't wait to celebrate a great year with my friends.